


Ark Crusade Redux

by Silius1



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game), Xenoblade Chronicles X
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 11:18:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 45,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15862563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silius1/pseuds/Silius1
Summary: During the battle which destroyed Earth, among the many arks that were lost during battle between the Ganglion and the Ghost, an ark from Tokyo called the Rihabiri managed to escape the chaos much like the White Whale with a single purpose for the people living within: Finding a new homeworld for humanity after the complete destruction of Earth, though intercepted communications has the leaders take up a secret mission hidden from the eyes of the people living within the ark and those kept 'sleeping' within the Lifehold, as the Rihabiri is ordered to set a course to a world that is already inhabited by advanced civilization.





	1. Human Nature

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Ark Crusade](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/413259) by Silius1. 



The year is 2059. May 4th, 2059. Nearly five years since the worst catastrophe in all recorded human history back in July, 2054: the complete and utter destruction of planet Earth along with nearly ten billion casualties according to the Earthlife Colonization Project or ECP. The only survivors are a couple dozen million scattered among the few arks that managed to escape the battle that ravaged Earth. The ark that launched from Tokyo: Rihabiri, whose population is primarily Japanese with a handful of American soldiers from Okinawa and other such bases who participated in Exodus’ training sessions in addition to a few specialized divisions created and assigned by Exodus proper, the latter being like the officer appointed to handle general military affairs: Tetsuya Yuasa who is half Japanese and American, nicknamed the Emperor’s Sword during the build-up of the Earthlike Colonization Project, are aware of only one other known ark that survived which is the ark from Los Angeles in the United States: the White Whale, both arks following the same doctrine when it came to the evacuation efforts, and their knowledge of this is only because of some isolated radio signals they have just recently discovered; reporting they apparently landed on a planet known as Mira, but little else since the signal was so weak it barely registered on their scanners, and needed to have their top engineers reconstruct the message from the bottom up eight times which did unfortunately cause some degradation so they feel like they’re losing context, though it may simply be lacking said context as the subjects are absent from their own caches of knowledge. But the engineering team in charge of it feel like they’ve recreated their caught transmission as perfectly as they could, which has been shown to Rihabiri’s command staff in addition to her highest ranking officers, who have assembled in the Emperor’s war room which has been fashioned to fit the style of feudal Nippon, and some minor Chinese influence as well.

‘ _This is Director General Maurice Chausson of New Los Angeles. Our hope is that this message reaches our wayward brothers~. We have found ourselves stranded on a planet we have named Mira alongside our allies in the ~Ma~on, ~Rone~, ~Thian~, ~Phean~. According to theories from the ~Ma~on~, ~Thians~, and ~Pheans~, this planet’s gravity well prevents anyone from leaving this planet among other unusual pheno~. Even though our astronomers have formulated our interstellar coord~ina, or so we’re told, we are withholding them to deter anyone from~. We will not be responsible for ~dooming~ by stranding them on a singular planet. Included in this transmission ~key pieces of information that has been instrumental to ~Mira, especially against the criminal syndicate ~Gan~ion. The most prominent is the material ~Mir~ium which has been extremely~, almost as much as food and water; the chemical composition has been~ so they can be recreated through 3D printers~. Anything metallic can be ~with it. Use the knowledge embedded in this cache to secure a future for~_ ’

After waiting for the message to unfortunately end with irreparable visual disruption of the holographic message in its entirety, the Rihabiri’s assistant to the Emperor: Akihiko Kyuichi rose from his seat and looked toward the chief engineer’s mimeosome body, nearly all of the ones from the Rihabiri drawing influence from anime in terms of appearance: Mana Choshi, the former’s body having a typical japanese disposition with onyx black hair, but with exaggerated crimson red eyes, and the latter having a far closer anime aesthetic in her appearance with snow white hair and blue eyes

“Choshi-san, are we able to recover the information this man says is locked within this transmission?”

“According to some of my engineers, the likelihood is remote Kyuichi-san. The ciphers protecting this information are leagues more advanced than anything we’ve encountered. Apparently it’s not human in origin, so Chausson-san must have had assistance from extraterrestrial life. In theory we might be able to force it open, but it runs the risk of damaging the contents further. Some are paranoid we’ve already ruined the formula for this ‘Mir~ium’, or whatever it’s supposed to be, when we reconstructed the message. We’ll do whatever we can, however, they are not willing to take any risks that would damage the transmission more.”

“That is a very valid concern. We do not wish for any message from our wayward brothers and sisters to become damaged by our own hands any more than we already have. Have them do what they can but keep risks to a minimal Choshi-san. Make sure of this personally. You are dismissed.”

“Understood Secretary Kyuichi-san.” With a formal bow, Mana left the room, leaving the other ten leaders of the Rihabiri in the circular war room.

“Yuasa-san, Kozu-san, Nakagawa-san. Have there been any complications with ship security ever since we revealed the secret meaning of the mimeosomes and the matter of us abandoning our true bodies back on Earth six months ago?”

“Surprisingly little Kyuichi-san. There was some rebellion and outrage at the fact we abandoned our true selves, both among the civilians and even our officers and soldiers, back on Earth, but we acclimated rather quickly. Quicker than I thought if I may add. Aside from that, things are crystal clear for the most part.”

“I concur with Nakagawa-san. However, a common complaint slowly becoming mainstream in our thoughts is a form of claustrophobia. Our people are slowly developing feelings of ‘being trapped’ in this ark ship. We’ve been able to alleviate this a little bit by ‘reawakening’ some animators to make new shows to entertain the populace, but just barely. It’s been nearly five years and our people want solid ground of a planet under their boots, not this ship. Not that I blame them since I miss Earth. Right Yuasa-san?” As Hachiro spoke with calm serenity, Tetsuya silently nodded in agreement, knowing that during his patrols throughout the Rihabiri, it was laced with the atmosphere described by Hachiro: Unease and sorrow rooted from feelings and memories from Earth.

“As much as I feel sorrow about these feelings as well, we simply have not detected any planets that can sustain human life, even if we’re in these mechanical bodies. Until we find a suitable world, we need to remain on the Rihabiri where it’s-”

Whatever Akihiko was going to say, it was interrupted when an armored soldier rushed into the room, panting heavily since it seemed the man had ran a great distance, with heavy glares being fired toward him since he interrupted a serious meeting between the council leaders

“What is the meaning of this?! You dare interrupt our meeting!”

“F-Forgive me Kyuichi-sama, but our navigators have reported that a habitable planet has been detected a few hours away from our current position!”

“R-Really? What’s its ESI soldier?”

“According to the bridge staff, it’s at .95.”

“.95?! You must be joking! Every planet we’ve passed by was in the forties or low fifties. Even though the signal was weak, that might be the planet Chausson-san mentioned. Inform bridge control to stall the engines immediately and deploy six automated probes to the planet. Ascertain if any trace of human technology from the White Whale can be traced from the planet. If there’s any hint of it being so, we’re to leave and find some other world.”

“Yes sir!” Despite being confused at Akihiko’s words, the soldier firmly and rapidly nodded in acknowledgement as he dashed out of the room in the direction of the ship bridge to relay the given order.

After seeing the soldier leave, Akihiko turned to face the three security officers “If this turns out to be clean and we’ve discovered a planet we can call home, I want you three to begin exploration for the ideal location to descend and place our colony and most importantly: revive the sleeping members of our crew within the Lifehold so we can rebuild the human race on this planet. Nothing more here in this meeting necessarily requires the presence of our military personnel so go begin assembling your teams. I’ll expect immediate deployment if we receive a positive response from our probes. Yuasa-san, as the officer in charge of the military at large as Kozu-san is in charge of civil protection and Nakagawa-san in charge of our Skells, you three are to lead the operation to the surface ahead of the Rihabiri proper.”

“Understood Kyuichi-san.”

“Before you leave Yuasa-kun, Kozu-kun, Nakagawa-kun. Come meet me in my chambers for a matter of utmost secrecy. What is said there will be extremely confidential to us four, punishable by death.”

“Yes, your majesty!” At the suddenness of the Emperor speaking, the three officers all deeply bowed in face of the Emperor, the gesture feeling far more required because of the specific circumstances at hand. Whereas all of the civilians, soldiers, and command staff were uploaded into Mimeosomes, the Emperor was kept in his normal human body since they all saw uploading such a venerable figure into a mechanical body as the utmost sacrilege and it helped reinforce the image of their solemn pact to defend him to the very last. They would be willing to sacrifice every last soldier if it means the Emperor will survive.

* * *

 

After seeing the silhouette of the emperor vanish from view, the three military leaders rose from their seats and left the room, walking to an adjacent room which serves as the emperor’s personal chambers where only he and those he personally invites can enter, walking through the synthesized wood themed hallway.

“So what do you think the emperor wants to talk to us about Tetsuya?” While he had been using honorifics as the social environment demanded per Japan’s culture, as soon as they left the public eye, Akira dropped the formal honorifics and began using null honorifics in yobisute since they all considered each other the absolute closest of friends and wouldn’t see the yobisute as insulting, particularly Akira and Tetsuya since they had known each other since childhood and pretty much consider each other as brothers since Tetsuya plans on marrying his younger sister in the near future, it being something Akira had been bugging him to go through with after Totori confessed to him.

“No clue. But he called for us three, so it must be of utmost importance. Maybe it’s related to a matter the four of us previously spoke of? He did give us contingency plans for a variety of situations. If it is, it is crucial we remain vigilant and most of all: discreet. It must be kept hidden until the moment we become victorious. However, the price will...undoubtedly be grave and likely irreversible. Hell, we may become worse than some of history’s worst tyrants.”

“You really are a pessimist Tetsuya but...you may be right. I’m not eager to achieve this kind of status; my little sister is still alive among us. I genuinely hate to insult but you two did lose your families when we lost Earth.”

“Wow, way to be an utter asshole by reminding me Nakagawa! I had a six year old daughter and son who died that day you bastard!” Just to emphasize how angry he was about this harsh comment, Hachiro reversed the matter of yobisute to show his anger contrasting with the friendliness he previously gave.

“I-I didn’t-!”

“Knock it off! We’re about to meet the emperor himself and I don’t want you two bastards roughhousing!” Just to emphasize his point, and introducing a degree of irony, Tetsuya drove his fists into both Akira’s and Hachiro’s stomachs, making them double over in pain before pulling them both back up as they straightened out their wardrobes and hair.

Upon their entrance into the emperor’s personal chambers and bending heel, a scroll is passed from his hand to a tube which quickly is transferred to in front of the three officers, each taking a thorough look at the contents within, exchanging glances between each other with firm nods of acknowledgement, their expressions cloaked in quiet sorrow.

“If this situation does come to pass, we will obey. I must say I feel like I’m more qualified than Nakagawa-san is in this particular situation since I lost my younger brother, but if this is what you wish, I will not complain.”

“Yuasa-kun, it is that clash between tragedy and obligation that presents a figurehead that inspires people to follow. The fact you push forward despite suffering loss is an admirable facet of humanity. Besides, on a more pragmatic level, you are too important for us to lose. Nakagawa-kun is in charge of our Skells while Kozu-kun handles civil protection. Both are important, yes, but in the grand scheme of things, you maintain the position as the head of the military. It is not something that ought to be sacrificed when we could appoint leaders for the Skells and civil protection among a pool of candidates.”

“The emperor has a point you know Yuasa-san. Compared to you, we’re expendable. By the way, I’ve always wondered why you didn’t ask to be in charge of the Skells when you trained with the Skelleton Crew. I didn’t really.”

“You’re better at that kind of leadership Nakagawa-san. Having to relay orders to so many scattered units is difficult for me. You’ve excelled with the idea of leading from a secured command center but I like being in the thick of battle.”

“He has a point there Nakagawa-san. You prefer being in the back-ranks, Yuasa-san prefers being in the frontlines, and I’m in the middle since I used to be in the Imperial Guard back on Earth which is pretty much a formal declaration that you’re police.”

“Alright guys, we should get moving. We need to assemble our teams after all. By your leave your Majesty.”

“You are dismissed.”

“Aye!”

* * *

 

After three hours passed, the probes registered a negative response on human civilization which was the result they all desired since it means that the planet is safe(ish) for their own colonization efforts, Hachiro and Akira quickly went to assemble their chosen team members they had already compiled prior to this event, both having a dedicated team they go to from the get go, while Tetsuya was rather more ‘lax’ regarding his own members despite his serious military attitude, since, aside from two permanent members, Tetsuya liked to randomize his team each and every time to maintain variety though he knew just who to recruit on this mission after memorizing the ship’s roster of agents from Exodus that were assigned to the Rihabiri, all military rankings being inspired by the American system: His XO would be his childhood friend and fellow member of the Special Operations Heavy Armor Training Unit or Skelleton Crew: Lieutenant Totori Nakagawa, and his chief of security and secondary engineer would be Sergeant Arisa Ando. The ‘random’ members he has decided to recruit this time are three pilots in Corporals Madoka Oishi, Zeshin Ozaki, and Yukari Genda, a biologist in Lieutenant Aiko Aizawa, a surveyor in Private Chomei Sato, and four additional security specialists in Sergeant Haruhiro Deguchi, Warrant Officer Ryoma Takeda, and Corporals Eisen Ienari and Sanzo Watoga. While he figured most of these personnel would be somewhere in either the Rihabiri’s administrative district inspecting and or upgrading their equipment or accepting work for the provisional government, the commercial district working odd jobs for the citizens for money here and there, or the residential district simply to unwind, Totori is the only one he is rarely sure of regarding her location since she frequently wanders through the entire ship’s accessible sections and _never_ answers her communicator when he needs to talk with her, deciding to first see the residential district to see who among the list is there. Furthermore, because of strategic decisions, a secondary command structure with eight commanders was established if Tetsuya, Hachiro, and Akira were to be absent so none of them have to worry about leaving the Rihabiri without leadership in their absence.

Upon reaching the residential district via elevator, disembarking and walking along the sidewalk, as he was about to cross the street to the nearby houses, he is quickly met with the sight of a practically lunatic driver going far above the speed limit suddenly appear and turn the corner, making him reel backward in shock as it practically flies past

“You dumbass! You could’ve ran someone over!!!” Utterly fuming at the sheer reckless this individual is presenting, he quickly puts a communicator over his ear and presses it to contact Hachiro “Hey, where the hell are your civil protection officers?! Some idiot in a red Mazda almost ran me, and I’m pretty damn sure some other civilians, over. Get this asshole arrested!”

“People never change, I swear. Get me his license plate and I’ll have him marked. You want me to have the vehicle melted down for parts?”

“Mmm...no. Hold it in confiscation and make the guy have to pay a large fine for reckless driving. But I will admit straight up that assholes like him need to be punished. If he does this again, melt it down and turn it down into tea cups. Threaten to do the same to his mimeosome.”

“Hahaha, you are one sadistic SOB Tetsuya. Melting down a car is one thing, but the guy’s mimeosome?”

“If I were in an angrier mood, I’d want you to set the guy up in front of a firing squad!”

* * *

 

After giving the license plate number to Hachiro, he continued his walk through the district, quickly found Chomei, Arisa, and Madoka gathered around a small patch of greenery outside Neo Roppongi talking to each other, the latter noticing Tetsuya’s approach and urged the others to attention as she quickly took a large strand of her vibrant long blonde hair into her hand as the sudden appearance of Tetsuya, in addition to her straightening out her rose red dress, had rattled her, and Arisa and Chomei straightening themselves upon his arrival, the former having blonde hair as well as Madoka but kept short to maintain a degree of professionalism since she works independent R&D, best shown by the lab coat she is wearing above her sailor fuku, colored green and white and the latter having the standard short black hair commonplace to the japanese, wearing a full one-piece black and white suit.

“Yuasa-sama, what brings you to Neo Roppongi?”

“I’m looking for Totori, Madoka. Surely you’ve heard the news that a habitable planet has been discovered?” Three nods of acknowledgement followed Tetsuya’s question, his greeting lacking standard honorifics as he finds yobisute more natural, doing this except for when he speaks with the Emperor or to address individuals second-hand, because of his mixed American/Japanese heritage, a silent chuckle escaped him since news of this sort clearly flies fast “I’m assembling a team to head down to the planet surface. I have need of your specialties for this kind of mission. Arisa, you’re one of the best combat specialists on the Rihabiri, to the point where I myself always dread the idea of fighting you, in addition to your engineering background. You’ll be a great asset I’m sure. Based on your military profile, you’re one of the best pilots of your class Madoka and I need skill of that caliber for first contact on a new planet. Chomei, much like Arisa, you were among the best in your division in mountainous exploration and I want to have my team prepared for any possible contingency; I believe your division was assigned to Mt. Everest?”

Hearing of their achievements had made the Madoka and Chomei look uneasy while Arisa flashed a confident smirk, the pair turning their heads away after Tetsuya finished speaking, having the mindset of downplaying achievements coming from their japanese heritage, leaving Arisa to answer “Totori is actually performing in the park theatre on the other end of the district. Even though she usually tends to wander aimlessly, she heard of the unease people were going through the last few months so she’s been performing songs more and more to alleviate their sorrows. I’m here with these two to unwind a bit from my R&D. I can’t help but feel like I’m so close to completing SAICI and the mimeosome control interface. I just need some more time.”

“Impressive work Arisa, and thank you for telling me where Totori is. Now, report to the hangar bay, we need to get ourselves ready for deployment immediately. If you happen across Zeshin, Sanzo, Ryoma, Eisen, Yukari, and Haruhiro, tell them I’ve chosen them for this mission as well.”

“Really Yuasa-sama? You’re selecting a truly motley crew this time around. Then again, we are getting the chance to be among the first to see our future home. We need a varied skillset among our pioneers. Ooh, I have to say I’m feeling rather...giddy! Forget what we were planning to do, let’s go Arisa-chan, Chomei-san!” Saying Madoka was exhilarated about being chosen to be among the first to see their brand new homeworld would be a monumental understatement as she quickly grabbed Arisa’s and Chomei’s hand and ran almost as fast as the road runner from old American television well over a century prior, the sight leaving Tetsuya agape with surprise.

“...Wow. I’ve never seen a girl run that fast away from me- Okay, I need to phrase that better in the future! Thank Izanagi no else is around right now, this’d be awkward to explain. But the theater eh? I can’t see Totori as a performer like that. I mean, she doesn’t have a terrible voice or appearance; geez, who murdered my sense of sensibility today?! I’ve never been this awkward with words before. I think being kept trapped in such small quarters here on the Rihabiri is making me a little delusional. Well, let’s see how big a crowd Totori’s attracted.”

* * *

 

With a destination in mind, Tetsuya walked through the shiny paved roads, nature intermingled here and there as a means of maintaining a healthy level of greenhouse gases, toward the crescent shaped theatre built within one of the nearby parks: Epoch Theater and when he reached the park’s proximity, he quickly heard a roar of applause commonplace in concerts, though a gentle feminine voice overshadowed the roar of the crowd, becoming louder the closer he got to the crowd, the sight of Totori, whom normally has midnight blue hair down to her ears and shiny sapphire eyes, but has decided to wear a bald cap to hide her hair and put on a long pink wig and colored contacts to make herself look like one of the very first Vocaloid characters: Megurine Luka and based on the intensity and the melody of her gentle serene singing, Tetsuya had caught himself in the middle of a song she was singing, though unsure of what is being played since he was never that big on music in the first place unlike Nao, his younger brother, who was a huge addict. He knows some old classics, but he just doesn’t follow trends or modern music that strongly.

“~Hold on to that daydream, stories of glory left behind those times but, no matter which direction they shout their tale~”

Even though Tetsuya had his own feelings regarding music, he couldn’t help but find himself immediately entranced by the melody of the song Totori was singing, finding himself trapped in his thoughts as he stayed at the rear of the crowd while the song was being sung ‘ _I may want to figure out the name of this song later if it exists in the archives. It sounds...heavenly._ ’ Moments later, Tetsuya found himself snapping back to attention as he saw Totori flash a more vibrant smile for a brief moment as she was looking into the crowd

“~Wherever I go, I am followed by that rhythm, leaving the city behind tonight, and the one I love, here by my side. I am trapped inside, the frame of a twisted image. I try to speak but there's no sound. My voice isn't coming out!~”

* * *

 

As the song came to a close, Tetsuya maneuvered himself outside the crowd’s right side toward the stage, but quickly found himself stopped by some of the staff who maintain the theatre

“No entry. Take a hike!”

“I have personal business with Nakagawa-san. Let me through so I can talk with her.” This only served to enrage the staff further as they quickly turned combative and one even attempted to throw a punch toward Tetsuya, catching it in his palm with a calm tranquil fury “Do you truly think such meager strength can faze me? My mimeosome is military grade that was built six months ago, built to withstand rather sizeable pressure. I was in a conventional model before but it was deemed necessary that I be given preferential access to top of the line technology considering my station. Looking at your model, I can recognize it as an early model pre-fab android set of the last generation made on Earth for creepy perverts before the idea of mimeosomes was conceived.”

Thankfully, before the crisis escalated, Totori exited the building through the staff door, her appearance back to her natural colors, wearing her usual samurai-influenced dress armor, cloth embedded throughout as to provide comfort between the synthetic skin and the armor, and witnessed the fight going on between Tetsuya and the local staff “What the heck is going on here?! H-Hey, let go of Tetsuya-kun!” After seeing the guards back away at her request, Totori straightened her body’s form and put her arms behind her back as she faced Tetsuya with a firm smile “What brings you here Tetsuya-kun?” Stopping to realize the guards were still close by, Totori just as quickly faced them “Give us some privacy why don’cha? I can’t exactly trust you jackals since you’re likely to go wild considering his mannerisms with yobisute. He’s one of my oldest friends, you don’t need to treat him as a crazed fan.” Waiting for the guards to enter the building proper, Tetsuya finally let his guard down as he faced his old friend.

“I’m on a recruiting Op Totori. I was aiming to recruit you into my team for a special mission. Hachiro, your brother, and I are getting the chance to survey our future home on the planet a few hours from here.”

“Planetary exploration? Mmm...normally I’d decline since I’ve never been fond of exploring places unknown to mankind but this time, I do feel rather exhilarated at the idea of being among the first to see our new home. Count me in. Besides, considering I’m your XO, you would’ve forced me to join you, so me singing that song felt a lot more fitting, especially when I heard the rumors flying around the city. So where do you need me to go?”

“Hangar antechamber C. Arisa, Madoka, and Chomei are assembling the team I handpicked. I’m actually on-route to join them. Let’s get going.”

“Sure, sure. Just let me give some farewells to the crowd and I’ll meet you there. I rushed out when I saw you at the edge of the crowd. I’m glad you came to one of my shows by the way! As soon as I saw you, it made me so glad I chose this song. I love how music can so easily convey emotion, especially when coupled with the right voice. I’m just glad I can sing as well as I could back on Earth when I’m trapped in this mimeosome.”

“Very well. See you there Totori.”

* * *

 

Five hours passed since the probes were launched, and with a lack of any link to the Americans onboard the White Whale, Tetsuya, Hachiro, and Akira each summoned their teams, all meeting in different antechambers adjacent to the Rihabiri’s hangar bay, each room outfitted with dozens of small cube footlockers all assigned to active-duty military personnel, as they suited up in standard-issue retractable ECP armor and equipped with similarly designed melee and ranged weaponry, all but Madoka having their helmets on their person

"Hey Totori-chan, can you help me fix my hair? I can't put on my helmet with it flowing out like this."

"Sure thing Madoka-chan, I've always enjoyed working with people's hair and the like, after all, I worked part-time at a salon. Comes with the territory. My fondness of this goes to the point where I usually always carry a comb with me, often for my own hair though." Pulling herself up from her seat as she had been loading fresh rounds into her raygun, Totori walked toward Madoka and styled her hair into twin braids and gently rolled it toward her skull to tuck it underneath her hair enough to allow Madoka to put on her helmet with little issue "There we go princess Madoka." Totori couldn't help but let herself give a mild condescending comment toward Madoka, wanting to tease the girl at least a little.

"I am not a princess for crying out loud! Why do you always tease me like this Totori-chan?!"

"Cause it's fun, that's why. Besides, you ought to be happy about it, you have such beautiful hair and eyes in that mimeosome of yours. Not to say that your human body was unappealing by any means. If there were any way to customize mimeosomes, I'd want to look similar to you, or at the very least, like one of my favorite anime heroines."

"You really do like anime don't you?" Yukari couldn't help but laugh at Totori's rather straight forward admittance.

"Yeah, mostly for the music though, I find too many a little boring if I may be brutally honest. I love the opening and ending themes to a lot of them, occasionally even the insert songs if they include them. Before I was called into duty here, I was actually singing some songs out in the theater."

As the conversation continued on between Totori and Madoka, later getting Zeshin, Chomei, and Yukari involved, on the other side of the room, Tetsuya, Aiko, Haruhiro, Arisa, and Eisen were inspecting their arms and armor in preparation for their deployment.

“Is there a reason why we’re going down to the planet with a full military loadout Yuasa-sama? I thought we were just doing some planetary exploration.” Despite the question, Aiko inspected her equipment with silent focus, polishing her longsword and replenishing her rifle with a full supply of ammunition alongside grabbing four spare packs and putting it around her waist’s belt.

“Quite simple Aiko; even though our scanners reported no recognizable signs of civilization from the White Whale, that doesn’t mean that the planet is peaceful. If anything, that only means that it’s even more dangerous since it’s untamed, for the most part anyway. This may be a mere exploration mission to scope out a potential location for Neo Tokyo, but we’re to treat this as a full military excursion, but only as a last resort. We’ll defend ourselves if necessary of course.” Even though the armor had made it so it is impossible to distinguish who is who by appearance alone, Tetsuya could tell that it was Aiko speaking, even when her voice was muffled by her armor, which just went to show how well Tetsuya know the soldiers under his command.

“Are we taking any of our Skells down to the surface?”

“Unfortunately no Haruhiro. Our Skells are still far too valuable a resource to expend on this initial exploration. Besides, Akira-san wants all of our available Skells on standby in case enemies come after the Rihabiri while all three of us are on the planet surface. Because of this, we’ll be taking shuttles. We have our first targets marked: the eastern forest, the western desert, and the central grasslands. Hachiro-san is going to the forest, Akira-san to the desert, and we’re going to the temperate grasslands. It’s all but determined that we’ll be settling in the grasslands, but we need ideal coordinates for where we’ll be establishing outposts on the other continents for food, wood, metal, and geothermal energy production from the continent in the north and if we’re lucky, additional springs and geysers on other continents.”

“Do you know how far apart each continent is?”

“From what I’ve been told through the probe’s readings Arisa, the central grasslands are interconnected while the other continents are roughly 4500 miles apart from each other, slightly closer if you compare the distance between the United States and Europe back on Earth. The logistics of transporting resources will be a nightmare for a while, not going to lie. But humanity has proven we’re nothing if not determined since we developed actual mechanoid technology among many other things in a mere thirty years. What was once a thought of fantasy restricted to animated television shows is reality. Even now, it’s difficult to believe despite graduating from the selective Special Operations Heavy Armor Training Unit to become a Skell pilot. Ironic, I know. Anyway, enough talk. We need to board the shuttle and get down to the surface. Our new home is down there.”

* * *

 

With nods of acknowledgement, the team put their rifles or pistols and melee weapons on their backs and walked out of the antechamber to the shuttle bay with a box-shaped shuttle awaiting them as the team walked in uniform rows of two onboard the shuttle, most of the team situated themselves in the hold where the dual rowed passenger seats were kept with a door separating it from the pilot section; the three pilots sat east, north, and west before sight of the room was sealed as the door closed and the roaring of the engine as it revved into action, quickly feeling the pulse of leaving the Rihabiri’s energy barrier into the vast expanse of space

“To think, after five years, we may have finally found a new homeworld for us. Isn’t it amazing everyone?!”

“You need to learn to relax Madoka-san, you’re going to wear yourself out if you don’t relax. We need everyone here at their best for this expedition.” Despite his choice of words, Zeshin simply laughed as he gently chided Madoka’s over enthusiasm regarding the mission while keeping his focus on the controls in front of him, knowing that if she continues exerting such energy, she runs the risk of becoming less helpful to the team since, despite her position as one of three pilots needed to operate the shuttle, she is still needed in case they get drawn into battle once they hit the surface.

“Oh cut her some slack you heartless prick. We’re among the first pioneers to explore this planet ahead of everyone else. You know they’d _kill_ to be in our shoes! Yuasa-sama, I’m thankful you thought us worthy to accompany you on your mission when the Rihabiri has so many experienced specialists, leagues better than we are.” Much like Zeshin, Yukari’s words were overshadowed by the comical tone of her voice, turning solemn remarkably quickly as she turned her head slightly to face Tetsuya.

“Stop downplaying yourself. You’re all talented operatives and I didn’t hesitate a second to pick each and every one of you. The ECP made sure we were all trained in our respective specialties and amplified them to the best of all our abilities. We’re among the best.”

“Well, he is right about that one. We’ve all been trained by Exodus to handle this kind of situation, not counting our own unique, varied, backgrounds.”

“Zeshin, how long will it take to reach the planet?”

“At full power with this shuttle’s Varskha engine...an hour and a half Yuasa-sama. The probes were outfitted with RITEGs, which are rather archaic engines compared to what we use now, so they took a lot longer to reach the planet. We were  We’re already a good distance away from the Rihabiri.”

“I see. Zeshin, Madoka, Yukari, run some system diagnostics. Make sure our comm systems are functioning properly. I don’t want us to be in a situation where we’ll be cut off from Hachiro-san and Akira-san in addition to the Rihabiri. We lose comms or our engines, we’re more than likely doomed.”

“Ever the fatalist...aye aye.”

With the request being made vocal, Madoka and Yukari worked their controls to contact the other two teams, quickly finding communications working perfectly while Zeshin found that contact with the Rihabiri, while quickly becoming strained, was similarly active

“See if you can boost the signal Zeshin. If communication with the Rihabiri is already becoming difficult, it’ll become outright severed by the time we reach the planet as things stand. We need to avoid that if possible.”

“Aye sir.”

* * *

 

Per Tetsuya’s request, Zeshin did his best to strengthen the shuttle’s communication network, to little avail since the tech is relatively archaic, especially when they have not been given any meaningful maintenance; though it was far from unforgivable since the engineers who maintain the Rihabiri’s Skells and shuttles were simply not able to achieve any level of meaningful restoration in under two hours. With five years of neglect, it would’ve taken them two weeks to bring the shuttles back to peak condition, especially when they had no forewarning that the shuttles would be needed; the best they could do was refuel the power cells and clean off dust here and there. It was honestly a relief the engines were working at all since it was requiring rather on-the-spot work with Yukari working her console with the speed of a high-powered machine to keep systems optimal and the flight path undeterred, though the shuttle itself began rattling heavily coming from the lack of maintenance as it soared through space toward the planet

“Urg...this is becoming insufferable. I’m going to knock those engineers silly for not keeping this shuttle maintained! Yuasa-sama, Madoka-san, Zeshin-san and I are going to have to do some major repair work when we land.”

“Got it; I’ll have Totori, Haruhiro, and Arisa stay behind to guard you while you work while Ryoma, Aiko, Eisen, Sanzo, Chomei, and I go explore the surroundings. You three are the best when it comes to how these shuttles work, Totori’s my second, and Haruhiro and Arisa are some of our best fighters. Not to say Ryoma and the others are incompetent.”

“Yeah, I can imagine our security detail are interchangeable in terms of skills. I would think you’d want your second with you in this kind of mission though Yuasa-sama.”

“Not this time Yukari. Considering our limited numbers and resources, I need my second to remain with the second team to maintain lines of communication. While I am putting my group in potential danger by only having six people, I feel like we can make due this time. Our mission; Akira-san, Hachiro-san, and I are to pinpoint locations for outposts and the Rihabiri’s residential district. Our plan is to detach the residential district and the Lifehold from the Rihabiri to land planetside and then slowly convert it from an ark ship into a space elevator over the course of years. Even though we’ve just located this planet, we’ve had colonization plans established years ago.”

“Pretty clever if I may say. Good to know we have people making these kinds of long-term plans. Time to kill our chatter, we need to focus on planetary descent.”

* * *

 

When the three shuttles reached orbit, they began branching apart since their destinations are far apart; Akira to the dark orange desert, Hachiro to the dark green forests, and Tetsuya to the bright green grasslands, though when they got close, an observation was made by Yukari as she split glances between her controls and the scanner

“Er, Yuasa-sama. Did this planet receive an ESI?”

“It was at .95. Is there a problem Yukari?”

“Well…if the scanners are right, it should be around .72.5. Really, it goes far longer, but I'm rounding it for you. Which is strange since this planet is in the goldilocks zone. This planet’s magnetic field seems weaker than Earth’s; the radiation level is higher than what we can normally handle. It’s not strong enough that it’d kill us directly mind you, but prolonged exposure in our regular human bodies will be dangerous. Furthermore, there also appears to be a strange mixture of iron oxide and methane gas mixed in with the same kind of atmosphere as Earth’s. At least...I think that’s what the material composition is. The scanner is really on the fritz here. Hence, why this thing really needs some major repairs. If the atmosphere turns out to be lethal, unless we can find a way to either change the atmosphere, our own genetic makeup, or encase ourselves in domed cities, we might have to remain in our mimeosome bodies indefinitely.”

“Are you serious? And the fool declared this to be a .95 on the ESI?! I know we’re desperate for a new homeworld, but this is ridiculous!” Hearing this just plain infuriated Tetsuya at the sheer carelessness of the soldier that brought the news to the leaders, making him tempted to have him demoted for getting the populace’s hopes up or even have his mimeosome deactivated and his consciousness sent back to the Lifehold, to be replaced with someone more competent, at least, this is what Tetsuya is publicly showing in his attitude “Let’s just focus on establishing a new homeworld for ourselves and tackle each problem one at a time. Set a course for a suitable LZ. Try to find an enclosed space where you three can work in peace and have minimal detection.”

* * *

 

With this order given, the shuttle began its slow atmospheric descent in the direction of the grasslands, the sight of a massive spear-shaped metal tower present on a cliffside above one of the oceans is made clear to the four people in the shuttle’s cockpit

“That’s quite a structure over there Yuasa-sama.”

“Indeed so Zeshin. The fact it’s metal proves it’s not a natural construct. There’s intelligent life down there.”

“But didn’t the report say this planet was devoid of civilization?”

“Well, we only scanned for human civilization belonging to the White Whale. This tower may be one of the native’s accomplishments in-”

“Erm, is that tower...moving?” Taking a glance out the window after Zeshin spoke up, all four people stare at the tower begin to seemingly break into pieces, now resembling an old style cannon, one of the pillars opening as a spike began to emerge from within

“What the hell is that? Madoka?”

“Checking now Yuasa-sama.” A few moments passed as Madoka attempted to focus on what was happening “I’m detecting rising energy levels coming from the tower. I’m studying the systems...It’s an AA gun! Aimed at us!”

“Evasive maneuvers, don’t let that thing hit us Madoka!”

* * *

 

Despite Tetsuya’s order, when the tip of the tower finished glowing a bright translucent blue, a beam of concentrated energy poured out toward the shuttle as it pierced through despite their efforts to evade the blast, the combined effort causing them to spiral out of control as they rapidly descended toward the ground in a collision course despite Madoka and Zeshin doing everything to stabilize their trajectory, to no avail, Yukari spinning around to face Tetsuya

“Yuasa-sama, go warn the others to brace for impact; we’re going down!”

“Understo-” The moment Tetsuya turned around to enter the main hold of the shuttle, more bursts of energy struck the engine, causing an explosion which was felt in both the cockpit and main hold where the other team members were situated in, him seeing the vessel quickly about to crash face first into the ground and is knocked unconscious at the moment of impact, said unconsciousness preventing him from seeing the shuttle being torn asunder from the impact and its damaged parts scattered about the immediate area.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The song I am using in this chapter is called Ninelie, which is the opening song of the anime: Koutetsujou no Kabaneri, translated to Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress in English, performed by Aimer. This time I’m using the cover done by Rafael Vidaurre/Rafattack on Youtube, whereas I was using the version done by Sapphire and Adrisaurus on my fanfiction account. In either case, I would strongly recommend going to listen to it on their channels because quite simply: reading off the lyrics pales in comparison to the passion they poured into the cover.
> 
> Even though it was never explicitly stated in the game, I’m going to just make the assumption that the full-suit armor worn by NPCs in the game is reminiscent of the Earthlike Colonization Project’s forces.
> 
> And with the description I have posted here, I’m not a hundred percent sure if the intro cutscene to XCX was purely Ganglion or if other forces from Samaar were involved in the battle since what little information I have is muddy and or seems contradictory, so I’m just going to assume that army was Ganglion. If anyone knows otherwise through word of god, please let me know and I will update it appropriately.
> 
> Now, as for the character descriptions of major characters (understand that I'm far from the best at this but hopefully this'll give you an idea of what the characters look like):
> 
> Tetsuya Yuasa - Considering he is inhabiting a mimesome body, his appearance is drastically different from his real self as his body has snow white hair and crimson red eyes, a U-shaped tattoo colored dark red on his face with small horned spikes on the right, bottom, and left sides, connected by thin lines to larger blots around his eyes. When it comes to his wardrobe, he tends to stick with standard issue ECP armor, much like the other soldiers onboard the Rihabiri. Height: 5’8. Age - 32
> 
> Totori Nakagawa - Wanting to keep her appearance as close to her real self as possible, Totori’s mimeosome has midnight blue hair kept silky smooth down to her ears and shiny sapphire eyes. Height: 5’3. Age - 29.
> 
> Arisa Ando - Unlike many of the others, Arisa wanted to stand out among the crowd and proudly boast her heritage, Arisa’s mimeosome has blonde hair as well as Madoka but kept short to maintain a degree of professionalism since she works independent R&D, best shown by the lab coat she is wearing above her sailor fuku, colored green and white Height: 5’1. Age - 26.
> 
> And while I’m introducing a fair number of individuals that Tetsuya recruited to be a part of his exploration team, I am only planning on keeping his permanent team in the story at a more consistent 3 to 6 people at the most in Tetsuya’s combat group at any one time, with an additional couple of members hanging back in support. While it does contrast with what I have said of him as he prefers to change his team each time, he is going to be hit with pragmatism having him change his mindset to accommodate a small, regular team. The size will fluctuate chapter by chapter and among everyone I have introduced, the two in ‘offense’ who are going to be permanent in Tetsuya’s team from here on (though they will be subject to temporarily being sent elsewhere from time to time) are Totori and Arisa. The other four members will be introduced as time goes on, but all I will say is this: They will not be human.


	2. Alrest Immemorial

“Urg…” Recovering from the trauma of the sudden crash, Tetsuya tried to move his body, but quickly realized he was trapped under a support beam that broke apart from the nearby wall, noticing an offshoot having pierced through his arm, tiny droplets of blue fluid leaking through small gaps “S-Shit...if I don’t treat this, my mimeosome will surely deactivate. I need to find some metal to patch the gap so I don’t lose any more bio-circulatory plasma. More importantly...these beams.” Closing his eyes to focus his strength, he slowly pushed the beam off his body and pries the beam from his arm “Ther...There we go.”

After struggling to pull himself up, Tetsuya looked about the small room, and opening the door to the adjacent storage room, the sight of crucial equipment that would’ve played a great part in helping surveying the environment and refining bio-circulatory plasma for treks in the field all being destroyed, in addition to their supplies which means that they have lost their means of surviving long-term, seeing the pilots slouched forward onto their terminals

“Oh no!” Seeing their bodies, Tetsuya first dashed toward Zeshin and put a few fingers on the back of his neck, opening a small hatch hiding a portion of the mimeosome’s circuits “Damn. All of that electricity fried his internal circuitry. I can only presume it got Madoka and Yukari as well. At least all it did was sever their mimeosomes’ connection to the Lifehold.” Taking a glance at his arm, he quickly noticed it was damaged beyond repair from the beam “Sorry Zeshin, but I can’t afford to have my body shut down too. I never to sever the connection between his arm and reattach it to mine. The compatibility is going to be way off-mark since our models are so different but it’ll be something. At least mimeosomes are designed to accept replacements from other models no matter what, with the only downside being compatibility.” Removing his arm and replacing it with Zeshin’s, seeing a distinct difference in his own snow white colored arm replaced with Zeshin’s tanned arm, he tested the compatibility to find it at a low twenty eight percent.

“I’m a bit surprised. I was expecting this to be at twelve percent, not twenty eight. Well, at least their consciousnesses are still within the Lifehold so they can still be restored in new bodies. But the Rihabiri needs to be notified of this to have them do this and we were having difficulties before even reaching planetary orbi-NO!” Realizing that the others were in the main hold, Tetsuya rushed toward the door separating it from the cockpit, the damage preventing its automatic opening system from working making him pry it open through full force, seeing the others sprawn out on the floor “Totori! Arisa! Chomei!” Tetsuya went from person to person as he firmly shook them all, praying that they survived the impact, Totori recovering remarkably quickly as Tetsuya was about to shake Aiko awake.

“Urg...T-Tetsuya-kun. What...What happened?”

After hearing Totori speak up, he rushed back to her side, crouched down as she attempts to pull up her head “We got shot down by an AA gun Totori. Zeshin, Madoka, and Yukari were killed from the crash-landing.”

“Well ain’t that peachy?” Sarcasm dripping through her words as she took Tetsuya’s hand to pull herself up, she quickly began helping Tetsuya reawaken their fellow teammates from the crash.

* * *

 

After seeing the team recover, they sat down on the benches and looked toward Tetsuya who stood next to the opened door to the cockpit

“Alright everyone. The situation has become extremely dire. Our shuttle has been shot down by an anti-aircraft tower, all of our communication equipment and supplies have been destroyed since we were keeping them in the storage room in the cockpit, so we can’t contact the Rihabiri or the other teams with how far we are from them, and Madoka, Zeshin, and Yukari were our only engineers with the knowhow to repair this shuttle. Basically; we’re stranded. As you all know, our consciousnesses are preserved in the quantum mainframe held in the Rihabiri’s Lifehold Core, so even if we die down here, we can still be restored in new bodies. But here’s the problem with the way we were forced to do this. It’s different from the original core in the White Whale since it is a copycat.” A pause followed as Tetsuya removed his helmet to show the extremely despondent frown on his face, not wanting to hide his expressions when he is going to reveal a dark truth hidden from most of the population “Whenever we would find ourselves destroyed and we are unable to transfer ourselves to a new mimeosome, our consciousness would be returned to the Lifehold, our present memories being erased since we would be reset back to the defaults recorded there. Madoka. Zeshin. Yukari. None of them are going to remember the last five years of our journey in space since our production of mimeosomes have been so very slow since we never believed we’d suffer loss while we were still in the ark. This has been a secret kept to a very select few, but now that we’ve seen death happen to our mimeosomes. It’d be far too cruel to continue hiding it. Our engineers have desperately tried to modify the system to allow for constant modification based on our individual memories so the shock is non-existent. But the technology is so advanced we don’t want to risk ruining something crucial. We may be immortal as long as the Lifehold survives, but when our memory is erased when we die and are returned to the Core, it is crucial we avoid death as much as humanly possible. Our only other option in this regard is to ramp up mimeosome production, but I have personally spoken against this since it would give us the impression that we can cheat death by simply transferring ourselves to a new body whenever we wish and that honestly is an affront to nature. It’s not...something I want us to think. Death should be feared after all. But if the Emperor wills it, I will accept a massive build-up of mimeosomes so the idea of death is laughable, no questions asked, even if I have my own reservations. My loyalty to him is that strong.”

After hearing Tetsuya reveal this secret, putting his helmet back on his head, everyone around began displaying their own versions of unease and outright disgust. When they were told of the secrets regarding their mimeosome bodies, that itself had introduced some degree of rage and rebellion before they let themselves become complacent and even pleasantly glad about the sturdiness of their mechanical bodies but hearing this piece of news shook them to the core

“T...They’re not going to remember anything since Earth was destroyed?! That’s-!”

“I know it’s a lot to take in Arisa, but I wanted you to hear from me and not learn the difficult truth in a more painful way.”

“Well, thank you I suppose. I honestly would’ve preferred staying in the dark, but if I had to learn this, at least it came from someone I know. I wish you were a little more...caring about it though, but I suppose you had to be up-front about this.”

“You know that Yuasa-sama has never been a good wordsmith. He’s as blunt as a piece of flint and as elegant as one too.”

“Hey! That is way out of line Ryoma! Remember that I don’t tolerate insubordination like that!”

“You’re stuck with us so make due.”

“You want me to kill you Ryoma? I don’t exactly got a problem with that just to let you know.”

“Wait a minute, is this why you have been so much more distant Tetsuya-kun? You were very close to your fellow soldiers during training, but ever since the Rihabiri launched, you were keeping yourself away from everyone.”

“You’re half right Totori. This secret encouraged me to avoid forming strong bonds since it could be erased in a single moment. It’d be heart-wrenching to suffer this, so I took to keeping myself from establishing one-sided bonds. Besides, I never said I disliked the isolation. Another reason was the fact that someone has to do administration work and I actually don’t mind the daily grind. It’s...surprisingly soothing. Heck, I may even retire as a soldier when things calm down and find a job like that. Maybe I’ll apply to oversee a power plant or head a company.”

The group all chuckle at Tetsuya, a man with a long heritage in militaries, who spent the entirety of his life within a military base, receiving the title of ‘Emperor’s Sword’ by the Emperor when he had been selected to join the Rihabiri and lead the military at large whereas Hachiro Kozu is in charge of the police and Akira Nakagawa being chosen to lead the Skelleton Crew, wanting to distance himself from it all, though one of the members had regained a somber, yet panicked, disposition.

“So...what are we supposed to do? If we’re cut off from the Rihabiri, it’s only a matter of time until we all shut down! Our bodies need bio-circulatory plasma, and that plasma can only be produced in the maintenance center.”

“Calm down Haruhiro. I didn’t say I have no plan. But you’re slightly misinformed, though I don’t blame you in this situation since it was something kept classified to commanders. There are ways to produce this plasma outside the MMC. Our leaders made sure each commander is aware of how to produce the plasma in case they were deep in the field. Cut off from our resources.” Tetsuya then turned heel back into the cockpit and returned to the group with the weapons the pilots had on their person, holding them out in his hands “Extra weapons. Who wants what?”

“P-Pardon?”

“Our options are limited to one Chomei. Based on what little I was able to see before losing consciousness, we landed pretty close to the tower that shot us down. The only path we realistically have here is advancing to the tower. Anything like that should have some sort of communication technology we could try to use to contact Hachiro-san, Akira-san, or the Rihabiri. If the AA defenses were manually activated, it is possible that we will have to kill whoever is there since they have caused the event that killed some of our own, even if they could be revived through the Lifehold, and stranded the rest on an uncharted world. If it was automated, perhaps we could alter it to fire an SOS signal. I’m certain the Rihabiri is keeping watch for any transmissions. Either way or another, that tower is our priority.”

Silence followed as Arisa stood up and grabbed an extra longsword and assault rifle, Chomei taking the extra javelin, Ryoma taking the other assault rifle, Sanzo taking a raygun, and Aiko taking the last longsword as they put the new weapons on their persons

“Weapons free everyone and move out.”

* * *

 

Silently nodding in acknowledgement as they pulled out their weapons, they waited for Tetsuya to walk past them as he kicked the door open, sending it flying off its hinges as he hops out, soon followed by his team, revealing the vibrant green environments around them, noticing the shuttle having crashed near a dense forest with elm trees being nearly a hundred feet tall or perhaps even taller

“Wow, these trees look so pretty. Aiko-chan, do you think you could start gathering samples from some of them while we walk to the tower?”

“Hahaha, you’re funny Totori-chan. There’s a time and a place for this kind of thing and now really isn’t right.”

“Nakagawa-san, I understand you find the environment nice looking, I very much agree with you and I find it stunning; perfect for our future home, but could I ask you to wait until we contact the Rihabiri? If things had gone normally, I would’ve gladly looked the other way and let you do pretty much whatever you wanted since our mission would’ve been purely exploration. I got no problem with us talking amongst ourselves, but stay alert.”

“Sorry.”

As the group continues to walk in the direction of the tower, Chomei sheathed his sniper rifle for a moment and pulled out a small computer as he begins moving it about

“Something up Chomei?”

“I’m doing some research Yuasa-sama. Air samples mostly.”

“Yukari already did some scans Chomei back on the shuttle. There’s oxygen mixed in with iron oxide and methane gas.”

“Not according to _my_ computer. Remember that the shuttle’s scanners are as archaic as the RITEGs in the probes. Anyway, those last two aren’t coming up here in any excess. There’s definitely oxygen in the atmosphere. Same with nitrogen and some other essentials. But there’s something I’ve never encountered mixed in here.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“Not sure. I can record the sample on my scanner but I can’t do any comprehensive analysis away from the lab. I need the Rihabiri’s resources to do any in-depth research. I’m just glad I can scan while being cut off from our networks.”

“Can you see its chemical composition?”

“ _Oh don’t even get me started_. That’s something I _really_ need the lab for.”

“Haha, true. But Chomei, much like what I told Nakagawa-san, I need you alert. Could I ask you to save the scanning for after we secure the tower? Since we’re cut off from the Rihabiri, I really need every man I got. Once we’re sure we can receive reinforcements, you all can do whatever you want.”

“You are such a buzzkill, even though your reasoning is valid. Heh, hearing you talk like this reminds me of our old drill instructor.” Much like usual, Arisa was quick to tear into Tetsuya. Unlike the others who are relatively restrained by their japanese heritage, Arisa had spent her life in Germany as her family had been working alongside a branch of the United States Army who were stationed there so she has no qualms acting brash, and he knows he can’t do anything about this case.

“Oh yeah, Colonel Squaretache as we liked to call him. Man, you say I resemble him? You know he would kick _both_ our asses for implying he’s gone soft. Remember that he would make us try to weight lift a T-34 if he heard anything he didn’t like. And that guy was fickle!”

“Yeah, and the german in me would almost compel me to fight him to the point where I would be bloodied. Funny I’m purebred japanese yet I feel pure german, all appearances aside. By the way, have any of you noticed a lack of wildlife?”

“They were probably scared off by the AA gun firing and the shuttle crashing. Wildlife tend to get spooked by loud noises after all. Give it an hour or two and they’ll be coming back. I’m specialized in xenobiology after all, I know these things. I’ll admit I’m curious what we’re going to be sharing a world with.”

“W-Wait. Yuasa-sama. Look over there.”

After hearing Sanzo speak, the group looked in the direction he specified as they noticed metallic defensive fortifications dotted all over the cliffside leading up to the AA tower that had shot them down in clear sight, the foreground of the plateau having multiple bulky cylindrical offshoots around an elevated staircase made out of stone and a broken down arch which have been overtaken by nature, though the shape and small gaps throughout suggest that they were once houses in a small village

“Well, that confirms it. Someone deliberately shot us down. I doubt they’d invest that much security into an automated system, especially since this village seems utterly abandoned. Everyone, switch to mid-range rifles and follow my lead. Switch to electronic frequencies once we reach the perimeter of the tower so we can’t be heard.”

* * *

 

Nodding in acknowledgement as they begin switching their armaments, they let themselves crouch down and take off into a silent run toward the tower as they follow Tetsuya’s lead, finding themselves in the remains of what seemed to be the village center, small traces of foundations suggesting houses once stood on top of them

“This place looks way aged.”

“You’re telling me Arisa. I don’t understand why this town is so dilapidated yet the tower looks pristine.”

“Erm, Yuasa-sama, I see another pathway heading up. Past some of those collapsed buildings.”

“Let’s go then Chomei; lead the way. Let’s make sure we don’t get flanked by anyone hiding out of sight.”

“Yes sir!”

As they follow Chomei’s lead through the worn-down stone pathways which have been overtaken by nature, they find small amounts of wooden stairs and railings surrounding thirty slabs of stones with engravings on each individual stone.

“Yuasa-sama, I think that...considering the shape of the stone and the proximity outside the village, we are in a graveyard.”

“I agree with your deduction Chomei. But considering how worn down this place is, save that tower of course, this place must be ancient.”

“Based on the things I have seen, I can deduce that this village has been abandoned for a couple of centuries. There’s still sign of civilization around here, but at the same time, considering only stone has any sort of distinction here, it’s theoretically possible that over a thousand years have passed. After all, the material seems to resemble stone and granite, which is one of the few materials which could stand the test of time to this extent.”

“That’s disheartening. But was this a case of the people simply abandoning exhausted land or were they all killed?”

“Arisa, that’s too blunt!” To Tetsuya's surprise, it was the soft-spoken Aiko who spoke out in rage over Arisa's lack of tact.

“Sorry, I guess. Remember that I’m not exactly all that great at being gentle with my words. I am utterly broken when it comes to being soft. I just can’t stand beating around the bush. I much prefer getting straight to the point, protocol of formality can kiss my ass. It’s helped keep a bunch of those egotistic eggheads trying to muscle in on my research projects, wanting cred for _MY_ hard work.”

“Erm, speaking of those projects, I actually feel bad bringing you down here now. If you die, we may never be able to get those two finished in the worst case scenario.”

“Eh, don’t sweat the small stuff. I was getting sick of the lab; I needed a change of pace. It’s why I joined Madoka and Chomei out in that park. We were planning on getting something to eat, go see a movie, or just hang out some place, and why I accepted your offer to come down her-Wait, what is that over there?”

Looking in the direction Arisa specified, the group turned their glances at the tree and see what seems to be a human body sprawn out behind it, the sight horrifying them as they rush toward it, hoping that one of humanity’s ark ships have not reached this planet and had been wiped out by whatever lies in waiting on this world, but the fears were allayed when they saw the large amount of metallic appendages spread throughout its body, its face, which was the part Arisa had first seen, being the only thing actually resembling a human proper aside from the general body shape.

“A robot? It looks human.”

“Do you think it could be from one of the arks Arisa?”

“Doubtful. Considering that we have mimeosome technology, I sincerely find it hard to believe that we’d regress in such a short span of time. No, it’s more likely that this is a byproduct of whatever civilization was built on this world. But if they were able to produce these kinds of human-like robotics, that would suggest a fairly advanced species. But where are they?”

“Think this robot would know?”

“Maybe. Though it’s obviously inert. We’d need to reactivate it if we want anything out of it.”

“Think you can do the job?”

“No promises.”

“Keep watch over the perimeter everyone.”

* * *

 

Despite her face being blocked by her helmet, the image of her having a confident smirk can be pictured by her tone of voice as she crouched down to inspect the machine closer, moving about several times to examine different angles in an attempt to see something more recognizable while the rest of the team walked down the cliff to the village center

“Looks cute, not going to lie. Purple metallic appendages made to resemble pigtails. An adorable white hat with a ribbon attached to a band keeping it still. I just can’t agree with the legs, they look freaking gaudy. And look at that flower; I think it looks like a white poppy? I’d prefer dahlias any day, I like pink over white any da-Wait, is that a crystal on its chest? It’s dark. Maybe that’s its power source?”

“A crystal is the power source? Are you certain?”

“Hell no. Of course I’m not certain! Earth to Tetsuya, this is basically xenotechnology we’re talking about here! Yes, I have specializations in technology but that doesn’t mean I’m a freaking technopath or omniscient.”

“Geez, violent much? I’m amazed you didn’t hit me with the butt of your psycho launcher.”

“Thank you for the brilliant idea there oh great leader. Want me to?”

“NO!”

“Hahaha, you’re too easy to rile up, it’s hilarious. Anyway, if that crystal really is the power source, we need to find out how to bring it back online. Hmmmm…” After having her fun making fun of Tetsuya, Arisa returned her focus on the machine in front of them as she sighed deeply in irritation “I don’t want to give up, but I can’t figure anything out about this thing specifically.”

“Giving up? That’s not something I thought I’d ever hear from you Arisa. Hell, you dragged us through half of the assignments we were given back as Hammerhead.”

“Right; the good ol days. I miss em. The days and the team. Elma went with the White Whale, Alex was sent off on a lone assignment by Chausson himself which separated him from us, leading to him dying when those bastards destroyed Earth, and Nao died protecting the Rihabiri in his skell. It’s just not the same with you, me, and Totori being left as the only active survivors in this section of space.”

“Yeah, I do miss the team; we were one of Exodus’ best. But I imagine you miss Nao the most? Oh yeah, by the way, I’ve been curious, but do you always act this way toward the higher ranks?”

“Trying to get me flustered Tetsuya? Newsflash, you suck at trying this, so don’t even bother.” As Tetsuya was about to respond in kind to Arisa’s rapidfire remark to shoot down Tetsuya’s attempt at teasing, Arisa let herself speak up, her voice lacking much of her prior enthusiasm and was even sorrowful, a word Tetsuya would never have associated with her before “To answer your question though, of course I do. Nao and I were dating almost four years after all and we even talked about marriage before things went to hell, we’ve contemplated setting our wedding date some time in mid 2055 or so. We wanted to wait until our training with Exodus was complete before officially getting married. I would say: Try losing someone in that position and see how you’d feel, but that someone was your little brother, so...sorry. Yes, I’m a hypocrite and I’m willing to let you give me a free punch in the stomach for insulting you. I know it couldn’t have been easy to see him get swatted like a fly. For all his skill...it was as if he was completely untrained compared to those two xeno factions. Damn them all! And regarding my disposition...of course not. I subdue myself when I’m not with you since I’d be trashed beyond belief if I acted the way I do with anyone else. Even around Madoka and the others. You saw how Aiko acted regarding my brashness. You and Totori are the only ones who genuinely accept me as I truly am. Remember that the japanese are rather big on formal quiet humility. I can’t act like that all the time and you’re the one person who wouldn’t harshly reprimand me for it since Totori doesn’t really lead. Even though he’s no longer with us, I sometimes wonder if that would’ve really happened, us being married and me ending up being your sister-in-law.”

“That act of violence won’t be necessary Arisa. For your brashness, I know you’re never intentionally cruel toward those you care for. I know you would never insult Nao’s memory in any way, or mine. Punching you in the stomach would be too cruel.”

“You’re too kind for your own good Tetsuya, but I suppose if you weren’t, you wouldn’t be you. Thank you.”

“I’m not going to punch someone who didn’t mean to insult others, my brother in particular. Especially when that person might’ve have become my sister-in-law and someone I do care for to some extent. Besides, you were a good influence on the kid. He was far too meek and sheepish, but you were somehow able to inspire him to become an utter star in the Skelleton Crew. He was better than I was in fact.”

“Ah gawds, there goes the resistance I had built up. Let’s get this cursed d-list sappy soap opera over with and not give Totori any kind of misguided belief that I’m trying to steal you from her. Help me open this back compartment here. I want to see if there’s any sort of control interface here. Maybe I can reactivate the machine there.”

Nodding as he approached the machine’s back alongside Arisa, they both pried open a section that seemed more out of place than the others, finding more circuitry but to their disappointment, they see what resembles a switch pulled downward

“A...switch. A civilization advanced enough to create these kinds of human-like robots and pack it full of these circuits has a switch meant to control its power supply? Sure, it took the might of two mimeosomes to open this panel, but that seems so freaking stupid. Who the hell is the engineer who made this thing or modified it if that is the case? They insult engineers.”

“Who cares. Just flip the switch and reactivate this robot. I’ll head around to the front and see if it works.”

* * *

 

Pulling himself up as he saw Arisa flip the switch, he stared intently at the crystal on the machine’s chest as it slowly began to regain a bright orange color, seeing the machine outright begin to stand up, eyes opening up in an instant to reveal its orange color, with two layers in-between the retina and pupil

[Sreegting Nastpermo]

“The heck? It can even talk? Wow.”

‘ _That’s strange. This mimeosome was outfitted with a language translator yet I can’t understand this robot’s speech? But it should have had an immediate effect when encountering new languages. Then again, this feature is still new so it may have bugs. An unregistered language perhaps?_ ’

[Taiw, ouy era otn-Masterpon.]

‘ _There we go. It really does take time for this thing to register, though it’s faster than I anticipated. But what does ‘Masterpon’ mean? What kind of dialect is that?_ ’

“Tetsuya, you have any idea what this machine is saying?”

“A little bit yeah. My mimeosome has a language translation system, it’s an exclusive feature to my mimeosome since I’m field-testing it before we start deploying it to all of our units.”

“Man you’re lucky being the Emperor’s Sword. You get the best perks.”

“It’s not all that great Arisa. Sure, I get first stab at new features, but they’re usually always full of bugs. Hell, this body almost shut down twice! Before the engineers could make the needed modifications, this body required four times the normal amount of bio-circulatory plasma to stay operational. Somehow, the engineers were able to reduce the amount to half, pretty glad about that. Anyway, I’m going to try speaking with this machine.” Straightening out his body and deeply inhaling for a moment, Tetsuya let himself crouch down on one knee to look at the machine proper since he was much taller than the machine at 5’8 “My name is Tetsuya Yuasa of the japanese ark: Rihabiri. May I ask for your name?”

[I am called Poppi, an artificial Blade created by Masterpon and Driver Tora, dadapon Tatazo, and grampypon Soosoo.]

‘ _Artificial Blade? Fascinating. Not sure what that even is, but the idea of artificially created lifeforms is fascinating nonetheless and I’m sure Arisa would be just as ecstatic about it._ ’ “Okay Poppi, may I ask what this village is called?”

[This is Fonsett Village, formerly belonging to the Leftherian archipelago before Elysium was created from the various titans. Rex became chief of Fonsett and guided them to join Tantal to consolidate resources as Argentum, Tantal, Mor Ardain, Gormott, Uraya, and other Nopon merchant guilds established trade routes. Rex joined Zeke to combine ideals for revival of Tantal.]

‘ _Okay, so they just abandoned this place, but we’re still looking at centuries passing. How long has this girl been here? Inactive and unaware of the years passing by her. Her ‘Masterpon’ is almost certainly gone. Same with this Rex and Zeke, whoever they are._ ’ “Poppi, there’s one other thing I need to ask. I’m traveling with an experienced surveyor and he tells me that this Fonsett been abandoned for centuries. Did you have any awareness of this?”

[Centuries?! No…] After hearing this from Tetsuya, Poppi’s eyes opened wide in horror as she begins to look about the surroundings and even inspects the nearby tombstones as she gently rubs one near the center of the field [The last thing Poppi remember was Poppi’s Masterpon deactivating Poppi here in Fonsett during his final hours. Masterpon wished to be buried next to Rex, one of his best friends, the only one who he was able to keep close ties with as Morag stayed with her family, Zeke ruled Tantal, and Nia left in the middle of the night one day to travel, since politics were becoming very involved in their lives and she has said she felt uncomfortable and unnecessary in such an environment. Masterpon...]

“Do you...do you have any idea of where your Masterpon would want you to go if you were to be reactivated?”

[No. Poppi have no idea if Masterpon has family in the world in this current day and age, same with Poppi’s friends. Can you take Poppi to the village? Poppi want to see it.]

“Yeah, I can do that.” Standing up after speaking, he quickly turned his head to face Arisa “We’re going to rejoin the others. Poppi here is going to be joining us for a little while.”

“Er...sure. But Tetsuya, could you sync your translators with us so we can understand the machine speaking? It’s going to be super awkward if you don’t.”

“Yeah, I’ll get that done. I wasn’t aware we’d encounter intelligent life down here. But I want to do it all at once, so let’s head down to the others so I can sync all of their translators with mine.”

* * *

 

With a course of action made, the trio walked down the pathway to the village remains, finding the team surrounding the remains of a small fountain, heads turned downward at the empty display in front of them until the sound of the trio approaching, making them turn around to face them, Poppi having taken glances around the ruined village here and there while accompanying the pair, her expression becoming more and more downcast the more she was borne to witness to.

[Poppi can remember this house. This was Rex’s mamapon’s home: Corrine. She was such a kind woman to all of us, especially to Rex who took him in when he was littlepon. Now it is just overgrown ruin.]

“Oh, you managed to reactivate that machine Arisa?”

“Yep. Took a little bit of work for the two of us to do it Totori, but Poppi here is walking among us.”

“Poppi? Did you name it Yuasa-sama?”

“No I didn’t Aiko. An individual named Tora did. My mimeosome body has a translator system installed and it’s allowed me to speak with this machine. Now that we’re all together, I’m going to synchronize it with you guys so you can understand Poppi.”

“So your name is Poppi?” Chomei was the first to approach, his training and background with surveying getting the better of him as he crouched downward to face the machine face to face.

“ **That is correct. Poppi is artificial Blade created in part by Masterpon Tora. Have question. Are you all like Poppi? Artificial lifeforms? This what you look like?** ”

“Erm...kinda? We _are_ in mechanical bodies but we’re all human beings. These suits are our military armor.” Just to emphasize Tetsuya’s point, they all briefly removed their helmets to reveal the people underneath, with the sound of a small hiss being released as they unclipped the helmets from their torsos.

“ **You look very similar to Ardenians and your disposition in particular resembles Mòrag’s Tetsuya Yuasa.** ”

“Well, thank you I suppose Poppi?” Pausing to put his helmet back on his head, same with the others, Tetsuya then turned to look at the tower overshadowing the village “I probably know the answer, but was that tower over there built before you were deactivated?”

“ **No. Tantal worked to maintain the village as it carries Addam’s legacy, but only the nations of Mor Ardain, Uraya have the resources to do this on such a scale, but the architecture is too different. It does not resemble Gormotti, Argentum, or Tantalese either.** ”

“I see.” Turning his head slightly downward in mild disappointment, half-hoping that the tower was built by one of the nations specified by Poppi, he turned to face the robot and gently put a hand on her shoulder “Listen, go find someplace secluded and safe. We’re going to investigate that tower. Stay hidden until one of us calls out for you. You all mind saying her name once and introducing each other so she knows your voices?” Normally Tetsuya would’ve been more confident and say ‘Stay hidden until _he_ called out for her’, but he knows enough about battle, especially against the potentially endless number of xenos lying in wait in the galaxy, that could end up becoming an empty promise. Prior to the battle that claimed Earth, he would’ve made such a proclamation without the slightest bit of hesitation, but after bearing witness to the strength of the xenos lying in wait in the galaxy, Tetsuya knows that despite humanity having undergone rapid technological evolution within the last thirty years, the likelihood of the Rihabiri’s crew fighting against those very xenos on their own is remote. Whereas the United States ark had a multicultural population to help broaden their horizons, the Rihabiri is almost entirely Japanese aside from a handful of Americans and other countries sent by Exodus. While the Japanese were certainly ranked high in terms of technology compared to other countries, the fact they’re limited to their sole culture now could potentially limit their ability to grow as a species. Whether in space or on the ground, Tetsuya simply knows that there’s no guarantee he’d survive if they come across battle if there are xenos defending the tower. He’s even trying to accept the idea that they’ll all die and leave Poppi by herself.

“ **Okay. Poppi will do as you ask.** ”

“Good girl. Alright guys, let’s move.”

* * *

 

After seeing Poppi walk toward the ruins of one of the nearby houses, Tetsuya and the others rushed toward the tower, reaching the fortifications with ease and position themselves behind them; Tetsuya taking point as he took a look to see if any enemies were on the other side, a lack of such encouraging him to leap above it and rush to the next line as his team began to spread out until near the end when they discover a sizeable group of individuals situated outside the tower, twenty silicon based lifeforms with an uncanny resemblance to humanity, their appearance seemingly hidden underneath pieces of armor and leather cloaks, surrounding eight smaller amphibians only slightly resembling humanoid form.

[Tetsuya-kun, I think we’re seeing some sort of intimidation racket or something here.]

[Don’t act until I give the word. We don’t want to get tangled up in something beyond our comprehension.]

[But-!]

[I’m not saying this out of xenophobia. Think of this pragmatically. We’re cut off from the Rihabiri. Cut off from Nakagawa-san and Kozu-san. We can’t afford to act recklessly.]

[Tetsuya has a point there Totori.]

[Let’s focus on what these guys are saying so we can ascertain who the aggressors are and for what reason.]

“-You honestly think we would allow you filth to live after shooting down three of our supply ships?!”

“But the Ganglion told us to modify the anti air defenses here you know! Automated systems are convenient yes?”

“Not when it turns against us! You Ma-non are supposed to be intelligent! So why the hell would you have the IFF treat us as enemies?!?!”

‘ _Ma-non? Those small amphibians are the Ma-non? If so, we need to protect them. The emperor has declared such if we would encounter them._ ’

“Oh, let’s just kill some of these small fry as an example.”

[Okay guys. We’re going to protect those smaller xenos. Focus fire on hostiles.]

“NOOOOOOOO!”

* * *

 

Nodding in acknowledgement, Tetsuya, Arisa, Haruhiro, Ryoma, Eisen, and Sanzo tightened their grips on their weapons and opened fire on the specified targets, taking down seven enemies simultaneously which introduced confusion to both foreign parties

“What the hell?! Who fired those shots?!”

As if to answer the question, after revealing themselves by gunfire, Tetsuya’s group calmly stepped out from their positions, weapons held firm and pointed toward the hostile xenos

“Who are you supposed to-Wait. That emblem on your armor. Hehehe, so some of you were able to escape. You humans are sickeningly persistent. Like parasites. You should’ve been exterminated back at that worthless backwater planet you call home.”

‘ _Wait, they know about Earth? But how...they were there!_ ’

“Well we persistent parasites as you so cutely described us is exactly how fiery and determined we can be when given the motive. And destroying our world is by far the ultimate motive. As I’m sure our presence here indicates, we humans are stubborn beasts and difficult to put down.” Tetsuya couldn’t help but inaudibly chuckle at how condescending Arisa was acting in face of potentially dangerous xenos.

“We can see that quite clearly. Enemies we may be, but I for one find that determination to overcome any turbulence admirable. Few races can muster the level you are exhibiting here. If we hadn’t sworn ourselves to the Ganglion and the mission they must fulfill, we may have actually decided to leave you be.” Whereas one of the subordinates was speaking with more hostility, the apparent leader, whom carried more in the way of embellishments, was far more benign in its speech to Tetsuya’s group.

“Then what’s stopping you?” In face of this enemy’s admittance that if the circumstances were different, they would not be in opposition, Tetsuya desired to know the reason behind this individual’s words.

“Simply put; we cannot allow you humans to exist in any way or form. You are a threat to our masters.”

“But there’s still something I don’t understand. You say that, but you may have very well brought this upon yourselves. We had no knowledge of the Ganglion’s existence until you and that other faction attacked us.”

“Indeed so. That is often how cruel destiny tends to play out. Be that as it may, you must still be exterminated. But we are not savages. Sheath your ranged weapons, draw your blades, and we will ensure your deaths are noble.”

“And if we don’t play by your rules?”

“Then we will use our training as assassins to mutilate your bodies beyond all repair.”

* * *

 

With a few moments to ponder their options, musing that these beings are unaware of humanity behind locked behind mimeosomes based on that comment, Tetsuya directed his team to pull out their melee weapons in lieu of their ranged armaments, having to unlock them since they were deemed unnecessary for initial exploration

“Designation: Full Metal Jaguar. Unlock.” Upon the order, Tetsuya’s dual swords opened up as hard light emerged to form the blades, his team doing the same with Totori and Sanzo being Psycorruptors, Aiko and Ryoma being Samurai Gunners, Chomei and Haruhiro being Partisan Eagles, and Arisa and Eisen being Blast Fencers. Per custom of the japanese branch of the Exodus forces assigned to the Rihabiri, the cap for classes authorized for the majority of their soldiers are typically restricted to level 3, officers being the only ones allowed to access the fourth tier of classes in Duelist, Bastion Warrior, Full Metal Jaguar, Astral Crusader, Mastermind, and Galactic Knight which is because of how those six specializations are given command access, which the higher ups want to keep limited to prevent potential corruption.

[Spread out you guys. Don’t get bogged down in this melee confrontation. We’re outnumbered nine to thirteen so be careful not to get flanked.]

Mentally nodding as they begin to branch out, the team had to change plans and charge forward as their enemies followed suite, devolving into an utter brawl, the sound of metal clashing against the hard light blades as they begin fighting singular or dual enemies, knowing that the level of mobility is possible because of both their mimeosome bodies and how they are using hard light weaponry which is almost entirely weightless, though Tetsuya was brave to fight the leader and two others because he has enough spatial awareness to perform the feat, being something the colonel forced him to experience during training as he was oft told to fight against eight enemies simultaneously, though he quickly noticed that because of the transplant he had to do, his capabilities in battle was far from his best despite his focus becoming utterly devoted on the fight at hand, also being able to see his team either struggling to match their opponent in Aiko, Chomei, and Haruhiro or able to keep up, but it quickly came to a head when he sees some of his team falling and the enemy losing some of their own, bringing the numbers down to five in himself, Arisa, Totori, Ryoma, and Eisen, and eight among the xenos, but the three Tetsuya originally fought against still survived their initial confrontation, soon gaining an advantage over him as the leader spun their body into a spiral kick sending Tetsuya reeling toward the cliffside

‘ _Damn, this is not good. We’re making good speed taking down the enemy, but we’ve already lost too many people as is. I’ve lost half my team now. I’ve lost my biologist, my surveyor, and one of my security detail. Now all I have is my XO and security. If I don’t find a way to make a move quickly, I’m going to be sent off the cliff. These bastards are too good! We’re going to need to adapt our tactics when fighting them in the future._ ’

Inspecting the situation thoroughly to try finding a way out, coming to naught as he is surrounded by the three enemies fighting him and what’s left of his team are fighting enemies as well, meaning he is on his own

‘ _I’m doomed. I can’t see any way out. No matter which one I charge toward, the others would attack my rear flank where I would be exposed. Square-tache may have trained us in situations like this, but that damn bastard had no inkling of xeno’s train of thinking! None of us did really. All of our tactics are built around human nature! No wonder we’re losing this battle. The only course of action I suppose I have is to charge forward to the one in the middle and give myself a fighting chance._ ’

As soon as he began to dash forward, the three enemies dashed toward him simultaneously as Tetsuya tightened his stance and prepare to fight to the very end but was surprised when a beehive barrier suddenly appeared at the moment where their blades would’ve struck him, making them reel back

“Woah, what the heck was that?!” Looking around the area, he noticed what was out of place: it being a woman with long purple hair and orange eyes extending her arm outward as a glimmer of light was pouring out, Tetsuya suspecting that this is the source of the barrier ‘ _But where was this woman hiding? There was no place for her to hide in that village. Wait...that hair and eye color...how did Poppi change form like that? Either way, Arisa’s going to be flipping out if she survives and things turn out in our favor. Either way, I think I found my edge. Best I use it but at the same time, not become dependent on this since barriers do rely on some degree of power and Poppi may have a limit to that thing pouring out of her hand._ ’

* * *

 

His valor renewed and as the fighting continued among the dwindling group of Exodus soldiers, it reached its end with only five people surviving: Tetsuya, Totori, Arisa, Ryoma, and Eisen, seeing the devastated bodies of the mimeosomes littered about the field alongside the enemies they had fought against.

“No...We’ve lost seven people. Madoka-chan, Zeshin-san, Yukari-chan, Aiko-chan, Chomei-san, Haruhiro-san, and Sanzo-san. Sure, it’s only a couple of people, but when combined with the fact we’re stranded and they’re going to have no recollection of our five years; it’s just the worst.” Seeing the bodies sprawn out, Totori nearly broke down in horror seeing them dead once the chaos had subsided since she had been particularly close friends with Madoka, Yukari, and Haruhiro, having done much in the way of bonding during their time on the Rihabiri and now it’s as if it had been for nothing.

“Totori, I know it’s painful, but we can’t change the past. These bastards may have killed our friends but we avenged them.” Much like Totori, Arisa, despite her brashness, was just as horrified seeing her comrades being killed, even if they can be revived from the Lifehold.

“Y-Yeah…”

Meanwhile, Tetsuya had approached the woman who had been lying at the edge of the battlefield, left untouched because of how his team had kept the xenos focused on them, his stance solid as ice

“I take it you are Poppi?”

“ **That is correct. I am Poppi Quantum Technochampion π or if you wish to shorten it: Poppi QTπ.** ”

“Q...T...π? Erm, would you mind if I called you Poppi Quantum or something else you think is good?” ‘ _Oh for the love of all things sacred. Why would this Tora name this form that? Totori and Arisa would skin me alive if I used that name in ANY context._ ’

“ **Poppi Quantum would be fine.** ”

“Anyway, I told you to stay in the village. Why did you disobey me?”

“ **Poppi knows enough about karma to know you were speaking as if you were anticipating your own death. Poppi waited until you were out of sight then switched to this form to help you survive.** ”

“Perceptive aren’t you? Impressive.”

“ **If you hadn’t given Poppi that order, Poppi might have been able to save your companions. They wouldn’t have died for nothing.** ”

“Poppi, listen to me when I say that this is nothing permanent. Yes, I’ve lost much of my team down here, but they are not truly dead. We’ve told you that these are mechanical bodies. Our real selves are back in the ark ship we came from. We would just need to upload ourselves to new bodies. The only downside is that they’re not going to remember anything from the last couple of years.”

“ **So they are just like Blades. When they die they lose all of their memories.** ”

“Not going to lie, I’m a little interested in learning more about this whole Blade thing. But let’s save it for later.”

* * *

 

When the chaos had subsided, the small amphibians who were being threatened by the enemies Tetsuya’s group had defeated quickly approached them, sheathing their weapons since the danger has passed

“Thank you for saving us yes. Those Milsaadi are ruthless you know? This act proves you humans are friends to the Ma-non.”

“Oh gods, that high pitched squealing is going to give me migraines.” As soon as the newcomers finished speaking, Ryoma gripped his head in pain, slightly shaking it to try dispelling some of the irritation.

“Well, you’re welcome. I don’t think it’s worth the losses we suffered however. More importantly, I’m pissed you shot down our shuttle. You killed three of my friends and those Milsaadi you speak of killed more!” Much like usual, Arisa was quick to let her anger overwhelm her better judgement at the present moment.

“We are so very sorry you know. The Ganglion forced us to build this tower to help control this key manufacturing repository world they conquered, yet don’t fully control as there is a significant resistance movement from the natives. We are no friends to them.”

“Wait, this is a Ganglion world? Er, more importantly, who _are_ the Ganglion in the first place?”

“The Ganglion is a criminal syndicate operating within the territory of the Samaar Federation. Our ship was captured and enslaved by the Ganglion when we passed by a different system since they wanted our technology as our civilization is very much advanced. In the last couple of years, the syndicate has strangely almost entirely vanished aside from a handful of pocket divisions. The Definians and Marnuck were among the disappeared in their entirety, and much of the Milsaadi, Prone, and the highest ranked Ganglion proper are missing as well. But even then, the Ganglion still have numbers in the millions. Here on this world, the Ganglion, Prone, and Milsaadi maintain captivity over four species: us Ma-non, the diverse bestial Valkenians, the feline Illarians, and a few tribes of Qlurians, and they force us to be slave labor to them all while also fighting off the natives. We Ma-non are used for our technology, the Valkenians for brute strength held down by obedience collars, the Illarians are kept to design the technology the Ganglion forces us to make, and the Qlurians to tether ether which is used as a fuel source for the machines they use here.”

After hearing the individual Ma-non speak, Tetsuya cupped his chin with his right hand, pondering the situation at hand, noticing that his team were horrified by what the individual has told them, to no surprise from him since it’s understandably horrible to hear happen to entire groups or even species.

‘ _Well, this fits what I’ve been told. Looks like the Emperor’s contingency is coming to fruition after all. And with it, Hachiro and Akira are going to be fulfilling their own missions. Best of luck my friends. You’re going to need it. Same with myself. I hate that I have to keep so many secrets from everybody, but it’s part of our goal._ ’ “Before I start asking questions, may I ask for your name?”

“Oh right. My name is Sumit you know.”

“My name is Tetsuya Yuasa. This is my XO: Totori Nakagawa, Sergeant Arisa Ando, Warrant Officer Ryoma Takeda, and Corporal Eisen Ienari. Are you the leader of this group Sumit?”

“Leader? Our people do not appoint leaders on such a permanent scale you know. We appoint delegates who make decisions for our ship per rotation. We don’t like being burdened by restrictions. We’d much rather be lazy.”

‘ _Charming. So the Ma-non have a society built around lazy anarchism? Unbelievable. W-Wait a sec. Something else is puzzling me. I need an answer that they could hopefully give._ ’ “Sumit. Can I ask what this ‘Ether’ you speak of is?

“Ether is a most wondrous substance lying in the atmosphere of many worlds blessed by the Telethia you know, including this one. It is many things, but when processed in a specific way, it is a most intriguing energy source. Ether in raw form enriches life.”

‘ _So is that what the scanner detected on the way down here? Raw Ether? Interesting. So now I know the supplemental material my mimeosome has. I can only hope that these Ma-non can answer questions I have. I won’t question the Emperor’s will, but dammit, I want some answers if I’m going to be involved in the mission. H-Hang on, Sumit mentioned a creature called ‘Telethia, what exactly is that? Er, I should ask when I’m alone with these guys._ ’ “If you don’t mind Sumit, can I talk with my team for a few moments?”

“Go ahead yes.”

Walking a fair distance away, the five survivors formed a circle around themselves

“Arisa, Ryoma, Eisen, head back to the shuttle and go bring Madoka’s, Zeshin’s, and Yukari’s bodies here. Try to salvage whatever you can if possible, but their bodies are the priority. I don’t want any of our mimeosomes to be abandoned right now.”

The trio give silent salutes at this order as they pull out their rifles, keeping them close to their chests as they walk down the cliff, Tetsuya and Totori turning back toward the Ma-non once they were out of sight

“Okay, now that we have some peace of mind with our enemies displaced, I need to ask you this. Is what I heard of that tower being automated true?”

“Absolutely so, yes! We were ‘contracted’ to improve anti-air defenses in outlying regions of this planet for the Ganglion. They possess many bases scattered throughout this world which lack these defenses by large, but they are well-defended by both their own forces and the Valkenian captives.”

“Say, if we rescue these races you speak of: the Valkenians, the Illarians, your fellow Ma-non, and the Qlurians, would they be willing to join us? We could use allies in our struggle to survive and find a new homeworld.”

“Free them from the Ganglion and I am fairly certain of this you know. Warlord Thraaklon in particular detests the captivity he and his people suffer.”

“Hmm.” After hearing this proclamation, Tetsuya put his hand on his chin and began to ponder the matter further.

“Tetsuya-kun?”

“I would need to consult the Emperor on this matter, but I am interested in recruiting xeno lifeforms to bolster our capabilities. We humans may be skilled, but it would be optimal to recruit races that can cover our shortcomings or boost our strengths in general. As noble as it is, I do not want us to become reliant on the Japanese spirit when it could lead to our undoing. Our limited perspective and capabilities led to us losing Earth to the Ganglion and that other faction. Much like how the United States lended support to Japan after the second world war nearly one hundred and twenty years ago, it would be ideal to find allies to support us. And the easiest way would be to help them rebuild from tragedy.” After finishing his conversation with Totori, he turned to face Sumit and his fellow Ma-non “Tell me, are there any more of your people on this planet?”

“Yes, our ship actually lies deep within Ganglion territory. Their defense network prevents us from leaving the planet and their guards patrol the ship’s exterior at all times so we cannot try fleeing to untamed reaches.”

“Interesting. Very interesting.” Gears began turning in Tetsuya’s mind as he began to formulate ideas in his head, cupping his hand on his chin yet again, this time with a confident smile ‘ _f I can make the Ganglion act in such a way, disorient their ranks, ascertain if they have bases on this continent; argh, I need more soldiers if I’m to do this efficiently. Too much is relying on sheer luck and chance which I’m not too fond of. I need some help from the Ma-non to identify key locations. If I can make this work, this could become a real tale of Machiavelli vs Rousseau. The Ganglion are enslaving species to force obedience, in the realm of Machiavelli, whereas I want these species to live free, to ally with us of their own free will in Rousseau. It seems like we have a common enemy after all._ ’

“I know that look on your face. You’re planning something, aren’t you Tetsuya-kun?”

“You know me too well.” Tetsuya chuckled, feeling the slightest of disappointments at how easily Totori can read him, shaking his head in mild irritation at the thought “Sumit, does that tower have any communication technology? We need to contact our ship.”

“Yes we do. Come with us.”

Before he began to walk inside, he slightly turned his head to face Totori and Poppi “Stay out here until Arisa and the others arrive and then help them out with storing the mimeosomes for transport. I’m going to be contacting the Emperor and my words are for him alone.”

“Outside my pay range? Sure, I get it. I don’t like you ignoring certain questions I asked, but I’m just going to assume that’s part of the whole ‘pay range’ thing.”

“Thanks Totori. If Fukurouju blesses us, I might be able to give an answer in due time.”

* * *

 

Pushing open the door and entering the tower, finding it to be almost entirely colored silver and black on top of the metal surface, seeing platforms suggesting that the interior structure is four floors tall, the second level being entirely built to repel invaders as the railings are entirely built as barricades defenders could use as vantage points, the only stairs up being on the opposite side, the structure suggesting it splits into two sides, seeing furniture and terminals on the third and fourth levels overlap, showing that is meant for dedicated operation for the tower, despite it being said to be automatic. Upon ensuring that it is solely him and the Ma-non alone in the tower, Tetsuya removed his helmet to reveal his proper identity to the group.

“We are finally alone you know. Thank you for coming to help our people Tetsuya Yuasa. We owe you our lives you know.”

“You’re quite welcome Sumit, but I would rather you thank our illustrious Emperor if no one else. Sure, I was sent down here to the surface, but he was the one who instructed the Rihabiri to deviate from its previous course to get to this world. But realize all the same that we’ve potentially put our people in great danger for this gesture.”

“Yes, we are very much aware of the perils you had committed to when we sent our SOS signal. If you help free our ship, and by extension: our people, we Ma-non pledge our technological expertise to your species.”

“Then we are in agreement since this is what the Emperor has desired. Now, what are we up against? And is there any way I can get reinforcements down here? I lost half of my exploration team trying to reach this place.”

“The Ganglion has been weakened because of the battle performed around your Earth five years ago, but they are still very numerous and powerful, and worst of all: entrenched on this world. There are plenty of Ganglion proper as leaders, but the majority of the forces are comprised of Prone and Milsaadi but their forces are supplemented by slaves like we have said you know, and they are tied fighting the resistance and holding their ground. We Ma-non were enslaved to create technology, the Illarians to design said technology, a few tribes of Qlurians to tether ether, and the Valkenians as slave labor and brute muscle. I have talked with their leaders: Sina, Shalana Elcan, and Warlord Thraaklon on rare occasions when the Ganglion did not keep us under extensive watch. While the Illarians and Qlurians are given some modicum of decency, they are still barely treated as living beings, the Iurians are treated with no sort of respect. They are treated as slave labor, to be used and thrown away without a care in the world. Thraaklon tries to protect his people to the best of his ability, but when he’s burdened by the same obedience collar as his people, he has few chances to. They’ve even forced him to kill his daughter and several of his own kin. Free him and his people from the collars and you will have a mighty force supporting you in battle. Free the Illarians and Qlurians and you will have a mighty support team.”

“That’s horrible. How would I go about freeing them Sumit and more importantly, bringing them around here in the first place?”

“That’s outside our realm of capability. We’re not soldiers.”

“Very well, I’ll try to think of a plan, but provide me with information. Any bases the Ganglion has on this continent, the size of their garrisons, any important sites whether tactically or symbolically. We need to make the Ganglion feel threatened to the point where they believe they are at risk of destruction more than they are. Disseminate the information to our troops once they arrive.”

“That, we can do. The Ganglion have outposts all over the world since this is one of their key worlds you know, despite the resistance, and in this particular region on this continent, they have six bases scattered about. Take them simultaneously and you’ll establish a strong foothold that will be challenging to crack.”

“Good to know. Now we only have four more matters to discuss. The first being modifying the systems into both an AA gun and an artillery piece with the IFF system designating Ganglion forces as enemies and my Japanese forces as allies. The second is using the communication systems to contact Akira and Hachiro, I need them to know that phase one of our mission is complete. We are to advance to phase two. Then we need to contact the Rihabiri, bring them into the fold and begin landing the fifth to eighth regiments. That’ll mean twenty two thousand soldiers in total once we can get them awakened. I plan to have the first to fourth staying with the Rihabiri to defend it. Heck, if things go particularly well here on this front, I may send one or two regiments back, though that would rely on if I am able to acquire support from the races enslaved by the Ganglion and the resistance. Lastly, I want to know about this Telethia you mentioned.”

“Got it my friend you know. Head up to the third floor and use the terminal there to contact your associates. And the Telethia is considered a monstrous, yet incredible, beast. It is flying creature unlike few others. It is creature none have desired to face. It synonymous with deathwish you know? We Ma-non speculate they actually produce ether which resonates on worlds like these. Of course, none of us have ever seen one in person, so this is just a theory.”

“Oh yeah, by the way, I have a copy of a message that has some ciphers protecting it. It has some signatures from the Ma-non, but there are others covering it.” To signify the message in question, Tetsuya pulled out a data chip from within his helmet and presented it to the Ma-non.

“Is this about a ship called the White Whale and a planet named Mira? We already tracked and analyzed the message. Here, take this terminal. The full message is on it. We’ve already deciphered certain attachments and hidden them behind a firewall here.”

* * *

 

Accepting the terminal, Tetsuya activated it to hear the audio-only message that had been sent by Chausson from New Los Angeles

[ **This is Director General Maurice Chausson of New Los Angeles. Our hope is that this message reaches our wayward brothers out in the stars. We have found ourselves stranded on a planet we have named Mira alongside our allies in the Ma-non, Prone, Wrothians, Orpheans, Nopon, Zaruboggans, and even former Ganglion infiltrators in the Definians with several individuals of other species. According to theories from the Ma-non, Wrothians, and Orpheans, this planet’s gravity well prevents anyone from leaving this planet among other unusual phenomenon. Even though our astronomers have formulated our interstellar coordinates, or so we’re told, we are withholding them to deter anyone from attempting to find us. We will not be responsible for dooming humanity by stranding them on a singular planet. Included in this transmission are several key pieces of information that has been instrumental to our life on Mira, especially against the criminal syndicate: The Ganglion. The most prominent is the material Miranium which has been extremely helpful in our lives, almost as much as food and water; the chemical composition has been analyzed and embedded within this transmission so they can be recreated through 3D printers on an industrial scale. Anything metallic can be constructed with it. Use the knowledge embedded in this cache to secure a bright future for humanity where we can live free in the cosmos.** ]

‘ _So this is the true message that Chausson sent to us. I’m glad that he didn’t carry any reservation of care for his fellow humans. I’m not selfless enough to admit that I’d act the same way with such passion. I’d sooner care only for my fellows among the Rihabiri. I mean, is it so wrong to think that way? Humanity has been almost entirely wiped out so what few pockets of humanity is left needs to be nurtured until we can rebuild and we only have ourselves unless other arks are somehow able to find us, though we all went different paths to maximize humanity’s survival rate so the likelihood of that happening is low. A lot of good people lost their lives during that battle, Alex was one of them; he was one of my best comrades. Me, him, Totori, Nao, Arisa, and Elma; we were sent on a few missions for Exodus that were crucial to the arks’ construction. The old Hammerhead squad. American, German, and Japanese; we were hand-picked to form this specialized team for those objectives. Heh, I miss those old days. Nao, I miss you little bro; if it weren’t for you and those other Skell pilots who valiantly gave their lives, I don’t think any of the arks would’ve survived. Humanity would’ve died right then and there. If anything, Nao’s death had a hand in Akira becoming head of the Rihabiri’s Skells since Nao would’ve been in charge since he was far more experienced with Skells than Akira, though I think they would’ve tried sharing authority._ ’

“Thank you for revealing this message Sumit.” Nodding in gratitude, Tetsuya climbed up the stairs to reach the third floor and began to work the computer after learning what to do from the nearby Ma-non and first contacted his fellow team leaders, syncing the frequency to match more exclusive mimeosome channels since he wishes this conversation to be more private in case it would normally be heard by their own team members [Hachiro. Akira. Phase one is complete. I’ve made contact with the Ma-non.]

[Acknowledged. We’ll initiate phase two.]

[Hey, Tetsuya, is my sister okay?]

[Yeah, she’s safe. She’s a lot stronger than she lets on you know. Her disinterest in combat betrays her mental fortitude. Remember that she was one of the few people Square-tache couldn’t break during training. And that bastard broke _me_.]

[Tetsuya, you have no idea how glad I am to hear this. This mission could end up having us being away for a long time so can I ask you to keep an eye on her in my stead?]

[I’m not going to make any definite guarantees Akira. Remember that many brave and strong people lost their lives to ensure humanity escaped Earth before its destruction. But I will do everything within my power to keep her alive. But considering the circumstances, the Emperor may insist on producing mimesomes at an accelerated rate so it wouldn’t matter if we lose a mimeosome body or two. Besides, Arisa has been trying to create some new tech for us to use as an alternative to bypass the process.]

[Oh yeah, the SAICI project and a remote access system to allow humanity to control mimeosomes from the safety of the Lifehold in stasis?]

[Yep. Arisa was always so adamant on changing Skell and mimeosome technology into new forms. She hates this stuff being so foreign to us and wants to ‘beautify’ those soulless husks into unique entities.]

[Hahaha, that is _so_ Arisa. When she enlisted in Exodus, her background with engineering was far more emphasized and sought after, of course her combat skill is nothing to scoff at. I’ve had to send a number of my own CP to keep people from bothering her since her projects were far from secret. People kept wanting a piece of that pie and say they had a hand in creating such revolutionary technology. Humans are such greedy and ruthless bastards after all.]

[You’re telling me Hachiro; I know that’s pretty much the truth when that jackass nearly ran me over today.]

[Oh yeah, just to let you know Tetsuya, we caught the prick and confiscated the car and given him six months prison time. When he’s out, he’ll still have to pay seventy thousand yen to get it back. Normally it’d be around twenty to thirty thousand, but we’re compounding his reckless driving and how he almost wounded a senior command officer onto the bill.]

[Ha, how poetic. Thank you Hachiro.]

[You’re quite welcome. I mean...considering the nature of our mission, I wanted to give what kindness I could while I’m still in the state I’m in.]

[I understand. Best of luck Hachiro. Akira.]

[Best of luck Tetsuya.]

* * *

 

Silently nodding as he disconnected his transmission with his fellow team leaders, he shifted gears to contact the Rihabiri, hoping that the Ma-non tech can interface with the ark where his shuttle failed.

“Rihabiri, this is combat team Suzume. We’ve found a communication outpost in a defensible location, but we’ve sustained heavy losses. Madoka Oishi, Zeshin Ozaki, Yukari Genda, Aiko Aizawa, Chomei Sato, Haruhiro Deguchi, and Sanzo Watoga have been killed in battle with hostile forces and our shuttle has been damaged beyond repair without help from the lab.”

[ **This is Rihabiri automated control, specify the channel you wish to access.** ]

“Oh for the love of every god in the pantheon. Get me the freaking Emperor or Kyuichi-san if he’s occupied!” ‘ _Gods I hate these automated message redirection systems. Yes, they help move things along, but they are so freaking annoying._ ’

[ **Acknowledged. Contacting you to Akihiko Kyuichi.** ]

‘ _I would’ve preferred the Emperor for this kind of secrecy, but Kyuichi-san is sort of in the know, but not to the extent that Akira or Hachiro are._ ’

After waiting nearly ten minutes, Tetsuya finally received an answer from the line he had been kept on [This is Akihiko Kyuichi of the Rihabiri, who is contacting us?]

“Kyuichi-san, it’s Tetsuya Yuasa. The situation for my team is grave. We’ve encountered hostile xenos and I’ve lost over half of my team. Aside from myself, Totori Nakagawa, Arisa Ando, Ryoma Takeda, and Eisen Ienari, everyone else has been killed and returned to the Lifehold.”

[That’s-You were one of our best! How did you suffer such significant casualties?!]

“We were shot down by an automated anti-air tower which killed Madoka Oishi, Zeshin Ozaki, and Yukari Genda when we crash landed which also devastated our shuttle beyond repair while here on the surface. And like I said, hostile xenos we’ve encountered killed the others. We may have geared ourselves for a potential military excursion, but we didn’t really expect intelligent life down here.”

[I see. What’s the situation?]

“Based on reports I’m seeing here in this outpost, I think this is an production planet controlled by an alien criminal syndicate.”

[Yuasa-san, we cannot, in good conscious, authorize combat on a planet-wide scale. We simply do not have sufficient troops to both lay siege to an enemy fortified on an entire planet and protect the Rihabiri simultaneously.]

“Kyuichi-san, we have eight regiments worth of soldiers. Yes, we only have one and a third actually awake, but that’s still about fifteen hundred soldiers. I only need a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty for the initial plan I’m formulating. Afterwords, I will need two to four regiments to handle combat on multiple fronts.”

[Yuasa-san, your plans have always been too drawn to delusions of grandeur when our resources aren’t exactly unlimited.]

“Kyuichi-san. We _need_ a new homeworld. Do you not remember the meeting this morning? Our people are becoming paranoid that we’ll be trapped on that ark indefinitely. It has been five years! The White Whale found a world in a mere two and that kind of information is spreading fast. If we order the ark to move elsewhere and find a different world, despite this one being liveable by our own biology, the likelihood of riots breaking out is uncomfortably high. Yes, what I am proposing is dangerous, but in the grand scheme of themes, this is by far the less risky approach.”

An awkward silence followed this exchange, Tetsuya wanting things to speed up and Akihiko to answer his last remark

[Very well. I will trust that you are following the Emperor’s will. I’ll begin ordering the deployment of additional soldiers to your side. To do this properly, I’ll need to send an order to the mimeosome maintenance center to begin mass producing new bodies for our soldiers and bring them out of the Lifehold. For the time being, I cannot allow to send too many soldiers away from the Rihabiri in case we are attacked. What I can send is the legendary Wolf squadron and their Skells which are independent from the army’s own supply. Those one hundred and fifty soldiers were all handpicked by various generals back on Earth for their skill in battle, adaptability, cohesion, and anything else you can think of. They are purebred commandos and can handle any mission assigned to them.]

“Wait, you’re sending _Wolf_? Wouldn’t you need them on defense?”

[Honestly, their skills are being wasted being on the defensive. And besides, ever since Wolf caught word of this new world, they have been pestering us for immediate deployment. And you can’t get any force any more mighty than Wolf. Honestly, Captain Kale Larson has been the main source of this irritant and has been pissing me off all day. I want him out of my hair.]

“Thank you Kyuichi-san. When can I expect these reinforcements?”

[Ten days. We need to prepare enough shuttles to ferry down supplies and later a base.]

“Ten days?! What happened to Wolf wanting an immediate deployment?”

[We cannot be reckless Yuasa-san. Exploration teams are meant to travel light and survey the field before the bulk of forces arrive. And in your area, your efforts have been greatly diminished so we have no idea of the surroundings. If we’re to establish a self-sustaining base on the planet proper, we need a great deal of supplies and enough shuttles to transport them to your position. Maintain your position until reinforcements arrive.]

‘ _That’ll be challenging to do with five people, er, six if I include Poppi. Even though defending a base on a plateau is questionably easier than laying siege to it, it’s still expected that about fifty people minimal are on the defense and that depends on the level of fortification. Hopefully our presence will be left unknown to the Ganglion until we can get our feet on the ground._ ’ “Acknowledged. But be sure to send down a few cases of bio-circulatory plasma and mimeosome parts as well. After ten days, the likelihood of these mimeosomes needing pure plasma and repairs will be high. Impure plasma wrecks these bodies too much. While it can sustain us, impure plasma is too much like ambrosia, but with a revolting taste. Once you take a sip, you’d have to constantly produce more to keep you alive and fight the abomination that it is.”

[Got it Yuasa-san. For the time being, I’ll inform the staff in charge of the Lifehold of the casualties you have suffered. We’re going to bring them back.]

“Once again, thank you Kyuichi-san. I should go rejoin my team.” Taking this moment to end the communication and climb down the stairs to exit the building, passing by the Ma-non explaining that they were going to stay on that floor and let the Ganglion believe they’re going to need time to upgrade the tower’s systems and to expect incommunicado which may even branch out to nearby outposts.

* * *

 

Upon exiting the tower, he is shocked to see Arisa, Totori, and Poppi climbing up the cliffside carrying the bodies of Madoka, Yukari, Zeshin, Ryoma, and Eisen, Arisa’s mimeosome having several broken appendages leaking plasma “W-What happened?!”

“Oh hey Tetsuya...on our way back to the village, we encountered an indign. It killed Ryoma and Eisen and it did a number on me. I called Totori to come help me out fast and Poppi apparently came with her. I’ve...I’ve lost a lot of plasma getting up here.”

“Totori, help Arisa replace her damaged parts with the ones from the other mimeosomes, _FAST_. I refuse to lose any more people dammit!”

“Got it. Come on Arisa, let’s inspect their bodies and find replacements for what you need. I’m sure Ryoma-san and the others wouldn’t want you to shut down too. Poppi, can you help us lay the bodies against the tower?”

“ **Of course Totori. Poppi has no problem helping Masterpon’s companions. Losing anyone else is the last thing Poppi desires.** ”

“Hold the phone, what do you mean by ‘Masterpon’, who the heck is this Masterpon?”

“ **Poppi’s new Masterpon is Tetsuya Yuasa-san.** ”

‘ _Oh for-I do not like the looks those two are giving me! Especially Arisa after that comment! But wait, artificial lifeforms like I technically am can be Drivers? Well, mimeosomes do have some degree of organic elements in their construction so maybe that allows me to be a Driver? Wait, I’m technically a xenoform. Does that mean any organic life can be a Driver to these Blades?_ ’ “Poppi, I would appreciate you addressing as a Driver if anything else in the future. Please don’t call me ‘Masterpon’. I can tell that these two are itching to kill me for that comment.”

“ **Understood Tetsuya Yuasa-san. Poppi will address you as Driver Tetsuya Yuasa-san from now on.** ”

“Despite what I said Poppi, I’d truly prefer just Tetsuya, but as long as you don’t call me ‘Masterpon’, I’m fine with that title.”

“So...all awkwardness aside, how long do we have to wait for more people to come down here and reinforce us?” Totori asked this question as she inspected the disconnected mimeosome bodies of their team, taking the needed parts from them and begin to transplant them onto Arisa herself.

“Ten days Totori.”

“Ten days? Shit.”

“You’re telling me Arisa.” Tetsuya sighed as he quickly looked toward Poppi “Poppi, I doubt there is anything of the sort here, but is anything I could use as a glass?”

“ **Why do you ask Tetsuya Yuasa?** ”

“I need to liquefy some grass and add a special mixture to it.”

“ **Poppi understands your request, if barely. And there actually is one in Corrine’s house. But it is cracked. Is that fine?** ”

“Can it be mended?”

“ **It would require Poppi to switch to Quixotic Tutelar form. First form is referred to as Poppi Alpha which is Earth elemental. Second form: Quixotic Tutelar is Fire elemental. and Third form: Quantum Technochampion π is Ice elemental. Quixotic Tutelar can gather ether particles and shape them into fire energy.** ”

“Then please fix the glass and bring it here, along with some grass.”

“ **Understood.** ”

* * *

 

After seeing Poppi dash down the cliffside, Tetsuya and Totori quickly worked on setting Arisa down against the tower, going from mimeosome to mimeosome of their fallen comrades to find functional parts to replace Arisa’s damaged appendages, Poppi quickly returning, her body being smaller than her Quantum Technochampion form yet taller than the first form she was seen as, suggesting that this is Quixotic Tutelar, with a clear glass in her hands, Tetsuya seeing a few bundles of grass placed within it as it is passed to him

“Thank you Poppi.”

Working fast, Tetsuya began to grind the grass into a liquid form in the glass before uncorking a small blue vial kept in a small compartment in his armor and let four drops spill out and gently shook it to make the formerly green mush turned blue as Tetsuya slowly approached Arisa and kneeled down in front of her

“Here, it’s going to be revolting, but drink this. It’s impure, but this is bio-circulatory plasma. I believe this is the first time you’ve seen it since the higher-ups and the staff in the mimeosome maintenance center, or rather, what most people considered a hospital before the reveal, restricted information to maintain the illusion of us being regular humans.”

“Oh yeah; every two months they’d call all of the civilians to that place and blindfold us in groups of twenty to thirty at a time. They said it was to help maintain immunities since we were kept in the ark.”

“That was to hide the bio-circulatory plasma. We didn’t want to scare the civilians.” Deciding that the time for conversation was over, Tetsuya passed the glass to Arisa, grimacing at the contents within, especially when she took a single sniff of the concoction.

“Fuck, this smells like eight years worth of trash infesting a house. Totori...could you hold my nose so I don’t have to smell this crap?” Waiting for Totori to plug her nose, Arisa closed her eyes and attempted to drink it with as little fighting as possible, but every sip made her face twist in disgust, stopping for a moment to recover some amount of sanity “Mother of all things holy. It tastes worse than it smells. I know I’m not the type to complain, but dammit.” Despite her choice of words, Arisa did her best to continue drinking the plasma, dropping the glass once it was empty, a small trail of blue running down her cheek “My...my throat…it feels like it’s freaking burning.”

“Totori, go find a place for Arisa to rest in the tower for a while.”

“Sure thing Tetsuya-kun, come on Arisa.”

* * *

 

When the duo entered the tower, Tetsuya walked toward Poppi, a question having been on his mind for a short while now

“Hey, I’m a little curious Poppi. Are you basically three Blades in one? I’ve seen you in three forms so I’m wondering how this is possible. I’ve just never seen a machine able to change forms in such a way.”

“ **Poppi could tell you Tetsuya Yuasa-san, but then Poppi would have to kill you.** ”

Hearing this with such dull monotone made Tetsuya reel back in utter shock since he never anticipated such a response so bluntly “Okay, I’m going to drop it. I want to know why, but it’s not worth dying for. Okay, there’s something else I’m wondering about. I know you’ve been inactive, but do you have any inklings where your fellow Blades are? Any potential strongholds?”

“ **No idea. If Poppi had to choose any location in particular, it would probably be the nation of Mor Ardain or Uraya. But Poppi is basing this off of outdated information. By the way Tetsuya Yuasa-san, is Arisa-san going to be okay?** ”

“She’s going to be in bad shape until our transports arrive. Impure bio-circulatory plasma does help fuel our bodies but it’s practically volatile. She’s going to have to drink this plasma twice a day for the next ten days if she wants her mimeosome to stay online, but it’s so horrible that I just know she’s going to begging either me or Totori to kill her to stop the pain.”

“ **Can Tetsuya Yuasa-san not produce pure plasma for her?** ”

“I...can. But I just don’t have the equipment on hand to do it. It was destroyed when we crash landed alongside much of our supplies. I’m sure that when we get shipments from our transports, it’ll include the tools I need to create pure plasma along with a few cases full of it.”

“ **Is there anything Poppi can do to help? It’s painful seeing Poppi’s friends in such bad straits.** ”

“More than anything, we need food and clean water. I haven’t the foggiest idea where to begin looking and I can’t afford to leave Arisa and Totori here. If I had my whole team, I could afford to spread people out since I’d have twelve people, but I’m down to three for the next ten days. It’s too risky to facilitate exploration with such a small team when we don’t have a base on the planet.”

“ **Would it help if Poppi attempted to create Core Crystals to awaken Blades to give extra hands?** ”

“What do you mean by create core crystals? Is that what the crystal on your chest is?”

“ **Yes and no. Poppi’s crystal is lid leading to Poppi’s ether furnace. Core crystals are now commonly created or summoned by amassing sufficient amounts of ether energy from atmosphere. Rule was changed because of Aegises Pyra and Mythra. Poppi knows how to summon inactivate Core Crystals and how to create new ones.** ”

“Okay, but can artificial lifeforms like we technically are establish any kind of link with Blades?”

“ **What is bizarre is that Arisa Ando-san and Totori Nakagawa-san is incapable of it but you are Driver Tetsuya Yuasa-san.** ”

“Strange, I wonder why that is.” Where Tetsuya is publicly saying one thing, in his mind he is perfectly aware of why his mimeosome is capable of bonding with these Blades after coming to realize a matter or two with information given to him by Sumit, but he simply cannot reveal the information because of certain obligations he had made with the Emperor, even if Poppi has no sort of connection to the Rihabiri since he fears she would reveal classified information at the slightest inquiry. ‘ _Okay, I need to figure out a way to have Sumit explain the situation without getting me, Akira, Hachiro, or the Emperor involved._ ’ “If you think I can bond with Blades, then please do so. I need to bolster my ranks here.”

“ **As you wish Driver Tetsuya Yuasa-san.** ” Taking a few steps forward, Poppi extends her arms outward as the air around them began to shimmer red, blue, and brown, quickly beginning to materialize around Poppi and take shape into the form of three diamond shaped crystals which is in the palm of Poppi’s hands “ **Without the existence of titans, a new system was needed as Blades would eventually return to ether instead of being reborn into more titans. So it was decided that if Blades would be returned to ether at the end of their lifetime or if their Driver dies, they would be in turn summoned from ether. In Poppi’s hands are fire, water, and earth elemental Blades. Take these crystals and hold them to your chest to awaken the Blade within.** ”

“Thank you Poppi.” Accepting the crystals one by one, Tetsuya gently pressed them to his chest as they began to surge with energy that began to manifest in the air in front of him, all taking forms very much resembling humans as much as the mimeosomes did.

“Crossette’s the name! I’ll do my best to brighten things up like a roquette! Won’t let you down boss!”

“Call me Gorg! It is a great honor to have met you. My power is yours to command.”

“I’m Floren! You look like a Driver I can depend on. The cuteness I possess can savage even the most savage of creatures.” Unlike the prior two who faced Tetsuya the entire time during their introductions, Floren had turned their back on him which gave him a little bit of worry since he had heard the smallest of mumbling before giving the second half of their speech to him, but decided to simply ignore it as idle musing for the time being.

After a second look, he noticed that the four individuals, or technically six if he were to count Poppi alpha and Quantum, all had different weaponry in a shield, mechanical arms, a saber, two ringed spike balls, and a greataxe, the latter four all having elements of hard light much like his own melee armaments

“My name is Tetsuya Yuasa, I suppose you could address me as a Driver as well. Crossette-san, Gorg-san, and Floren-san, it is the greatest of honors to meet you three as well. I hope I can live up to whatever expectations you have of me.”

“That’s our line really boss. It’s us that should be hoping we live to _your_ expectations. We may be living beings, but you still brought us back to life from the ether.”

“I...I see. A-Anyway, could I ask you three to help establish this place as a base? Furthermore, we need to secure a supply of food and water.”

“Of course! Leave it to us. Come on Gorg, Floren, let’s clean this place up and get some of these old buildings fixed up. Maybe we could create a well for water and start tilling some nearby fields for crops.”

* * *

 

With the trio going off down the cliff and later different directions in the village, Tetsuya deeply inhaled but suddenly felt a pain spasm causing him to fall to his knees

“ **Tetsuya Yuasa-san!** ”

“Ah geez...my body feels like it suddenly caught six kinds of diseases making me feel...heavy.”

“ **Poppi is so so sorry! Poppi shouldn’t have given three crystals at once! Tetsuya Yuasa-san’s body was overwhelmed by the amount of ether the bond demands so suddenly. It is clear that Tetsuya Yuasa-san has the aptitude to safely bond with Blades, but should’ve taken it slowly. Please forgive Poppi!** ”

“It...it’s alright Poppi. You don’t need to ask for forgiveness. I should’ve anticipated something like this happening. Look, I know what I said before, but could I ask you to just call me Tetsuya? That full title is a little grating on the ears. I didn’t even like being called by my full name among my own people.”

“ **Poppi will-Poppi will try.** ” Poppi looked like she was about to break down into tears before Tetsuya reassured her as she helped him up.

‘ _Okay, bonding with multiple Blades at once is far too taxing on these mimeosome bodies and reliant on ether, at least, my model is since it barely has ether built into the design. As advanced as this mimeosome is, it still barely utilizes ether since we know next to nothing about it, though it’s a large part of what makes me stronger and require less plasma, especially when that beam pierced my arm. We need to improve our mimeosomes with more and more ether until we feel safe enough to revive our human bodies. Unless Arisa can perfect her mimeosome control interface that is. Actually, that makes me wonder if any blades we awake would be returned to ether. Hm, I should ask Poppi._ ’ “Hey Poppi, there’s something I need to ask. Would Crossette, Gorg, and Floren be returned to the ether if this body were to shut down for any reason since you said the death of a Driver returns Blades to ether. At some point I do plan on shutting down my mimeosome either indefinitely or in temporary bursts.”

“ **If they maintain a supply of ether, they can survive short periods without a Driver. But without a bond with a Driver, they will ultimately be returned to Ether and lose their memories. Poppi is something of an exception because of ether furnace.** ”

Hearing this then led Tetsuya to cup his chin with his hand ‘ _Interesting. Basically, I think we have an inexhaustible force here with these Blades, but if we do bond with these beings, I don’t want things to start turning bad. They’re intelligent life and I don’t them being treated as free slave labor. I need to figure out if there’s any kind of coalition or anything of the sort with these Blades. There’s too much we don’t know about this world and help from the natives would be immensely helpful. Especially against the Ganglion. As much as we’ve discussed this contingency, far too much has been shrouded in darkness for my liking. Besides, based on what I’ve seen, I wouldn’t want them in combat roles based on that barrier Poppi made around me, I think they’d be more useful to use as support._ ’ “Say, how long do you think it’ll take for Crossette and the others to finish down there in Fonsett, and there is a concern on my mind. Are Blades conditioned to obey their Drivers without question?”

“ **Blades are loyal to their Drivers, but it is not absolute. If the Driver acts against their nature to an extreme state, the Blade will attempt autonomy and free themselves through killing their Driver. For Blades who believe in justice for instance, they would sooner die and return to ether than serve corrupt Drivers. As for how long it will take for Crossette, Gorg, and Floren, they are sure to work through the night focusing on repairing Fonsett and gathering food. Poppi is sure that Fonsett will become self-sufficient within the ten day waiting period Tetsuya has.** ”

“And does this subject of loyalty apply to you Poppi? I ask since you said you’re an artificial Blade.”

“ **Ultimately Poppi is loyal only to Masterpon and his descendents, but since Arisa Ando-san and Tetsuya have reactivated Poppi, Poppi will stay and help. It would be rude to do otherwise.** ”

“And if one of Tora’s descendents were to come, would you go with them or would you stay here?”

“ **Huh...that’s a difficult question for Poppi to answer. Poppi would need to see what happens up until then.** ”

“I see. Thank you for answering my questions. I’m going to join Totori and Arisa to get some sleep. Mind helping them get the place cleaned up for us?”

“ **Of course.** ”

The two turn their backs to each other as Poppi goes down the cliff to help the other newly awakened Blades repair Fonsett while Tetsuya entered the tower, seeing Totori and Arisa lying down on the floor next to the wall on the right side, Totori having placed her arm around the other

“Well, it certainly has been a very taxing day on us both physically and emotionally. What was supposed to be a simple exploration mission turned into an utter massacre. Eleven elite operatives I handpicked for this mission dropped to three. Somehow I’m not surprised that the survivors were all from Hammerhead.” Sighing as Tetsuya walked to the other side of the building and let himself drop against the wall, later letting himself rest on his shoulders to sleep.

* * *

 

A/N: Let me simply say that a major theme of this story is mystery and secrets. From the get-go, there is a hidden plot being kept in the background that I am leaving hints about scattered through the chapters. So if there seems to be inconsistencies in the lore I am creating vs the background of Xenoblade Chronicles X, know that, unless I specifically state that is a mistake in the next chapter I simply overlooked, which I will fix upon discovery mind you, it would be a part of the mystery. In the first two chapters alone, I have released a few pieces of this kind of foreshadowing. What I’m not going to say is where I hid these or how many I have placed in each chapter. Basically, I’m trying to imitate Scott Cawthon who made FNAF, but on a weaker level since there’s no way I can match that guy when it comes to things like this.

As for the mention of the mimeosome control system that I have discussed in this chapter and the previous, that was actually inspired by a person on Youtube named Luxin making a hypothetical story about Xenoblade Chronicles X, it being about the idea of the White Whale not being attacked and forced to crash on Mira, landing peacefully.

Lastly, I’m including a lot of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 content but let me say up-front that while I’m following the epilogue, it is not strictly canon to the game proper. To keep the explanation as simple as possible, I am following the multiverse theory concept which I have practiced in several occasions throughout my stories prior. Anyone who knows the theory knows that opens a huge can of worms that is practically endless to some extent. In regards to how I portray characters, I’m going to do my utmost to keep them canon to how they act in Xenoblade 2 proper, but understand that all of the named characters from the game that will appear in this fanfic are Blades. While the core of their being for the most part stays unchanged, their identity does change depending on their Driver to an extent; Wulfric, Theory, and Praxis are some of the best example of this and you even see it happen in the game proper, so please understand that there might be divergence in how they act from the game.


	3. Insurgence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys, there are a few things I happened to notice on my own that I need to clarify. So let me start with the small detail first: I just realized this, but the planet composition I listed in the previous chapter is a remnant of how I originally was going to be using an original planet instead of Alrest. It was a bit of an abrupt change I made when I was revising the story of Ark Crusade into Redux so I’m going to be ignoring it to some extent.
> 
> Now it’s time for a more serious matter: among my first two chapters, I noticed that I had unintentionally written a contradiction on the surface regarding the position of the mimeosomes. When it comes to the story of the bio-circulatory plasma procedure, I did intend to portray it the way I had written, but the reasoning was unintentionally left too vague and incorrect. Yes, the people on the Rihabiri know that they’re in mimeosomes, but the reason they hide the plasma is the way the Rihabiri administers it, which I have shown: they drink the plasma. I don’t know about you guys, but even if the maintenance center disguises the taste, I wouldn’t want to drink something that could be similar to sludge. They keep the people blindfolded to hide those potential fears.
> 
> Now, you may wonder why the mimeosomes require such a higher level of maintenance compared to the ones from the White Whale, but that can be explained in my setting. Japan is pretty technologically inclined and develop new stuff practically all the time. It’s not unthinkable that kind of mindset would encourage the people onboard the Rihabiri to study the designs of the mimeosomes and begin modifying them with new features. With this in mind, in this setting, during their time onboard the Rihabiri, almost all of the people are within what they call generation two mimeosomes, with gen one (aka the type used by the White Whale) being comparable to the insult Tetsuya used when he went to meet with Totori. But whereas gen two is considered the norm as of that time, generation three mimeosomes have already been deployed in small numbers for field testing. Something I will say is that the concept for generation three mimeosomes in my setting had been started before gen two had begun production but had to be delayed until the hardware was powerful enough to handle certain features.
> 
> Next up, Mythra is making her first appearance in this chapter, but she’s going to look a little different compared to how she looks in the base game in Xenoblade 2 and Torna: The Golden Country. I’m going to be using the design that is being used in Super Smash Bros Ultimate out of personal preference. Aka Mythra’s ‘Massive Melee Mythra’ costume in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Torna.
> 
> Now, this is me nitpicking, but let me say this: there is one thing about arial font that I just cannot stand. It is about upper cases i’s and lower case Ls. Because of how indistinguishable upper case i’s are from lower case Ls in this font, Eisen’s surname is blurred: ienari, but because of arial, it appears as Lenari, since surnames are generally abbreviated with an uppercase. I’m still learning how to work on this site, so if anyone knows any sort of workaround with that, please let me know. If not, well, at least I am explaining the matter here. Furthermore one of the Ganglion’s slave races in my setting here is called the Illarians, which starts with an uppercase i. But arial font makes it look like I’m spelling the species as Lllarians (with 3 lower cases Ls when it should be an uppercase i and two lower case Ls.), and these guys are going to be involved in this story a fair amount. It’s irritating having the font make the words appear different from how I want them to be.
> 
> Also, I am very sorry for taking so long to post this, but my laptop died back in October and I only got a replacement in mid-January, so in the interim time between those months, I didn’t have any reliable means of writing these stories since my PC setup wasn’t meant to handle that kind of build so all of my work slowed to a crawl until I was able to get this replacement. But on a positive note, it’s allowed me to focus more on gathering notes and thoughts on how I wanted this story to progress and I’m pleased with what I have.

After a few hours passed of the new day’s daybreak, Tetsuya, who had fallen asleep on the cold steel floor much like Totori and Arisa, felt himself being gently shaken awake from his slumber, with the smell of food amplifying the sensation as he struggled to open his eyes since he was exhausted from yesterday’s events

“-san.”

Hearing a gentle voice that seems more unfamiliar to what he is unaccustomed to ring out around his ears, Tetsuya pushed himself further to open his eyes to find a weak reflection of Crossette sitting down next to him with a grilled apple in her right hand and a glass of water next to her

“Tetsuya-san, you awake?”

“Erg...kinda. I’ve been through a lot yesterday which was really taxing on my psyche and body.”

“It’s not much granted, but maybe some food and water can help wake you up? I found a few apple trees near some sort of stone stele south of the village and I decided to pick some for you guys and Gorg and Floren finished rebuilding the fountain and thus, a water source.”

“Thank you Crossette.” Accepting the apple, having used honorifics once since he wanted to be polite but wanted to stick with his yobisute as much as the culture would allow, Tetsuya took a single bite of it, finding the taste different from what he had been accustomed to, but not unappealing overall, taking a break after a few more bites to drink some water “Hm, interesting texture and taste there. But honestly, I’m surprised our mimeosomes can eat these kinds of things, I feared the possibility of local fauna being venomous to us to the point where we’d have to grow our own food. But the fact it resembles what we have on Earth baffles me.” ‘ _Okay, what the heck is going on here?! Architecture aside, for the most part anyway, much of what we’ve been seeing on this planet is too reminiscent of Earth. The flora, the food. How is it possible for this much overlap? Aren’t planets supposed to be unique from one another? Why are there similarities to this extent? This really makes me think that an ark tried to colonize this world but failed, but at the same time, it doesn’t work. There’s no way any of our arks could change the ecosystem this drastically in only five years’ time. So this is natural. Unless this is some coincidence...there’s something at play here. Something different from the phenomena Chausson told us of. That or...I’m overthinking things? It wouldn’t exactly be the first time during our five years of isolation on the Rihabiri. The claustrophobia has been making us all a little unhinged. It got to the point where we needed to start establishing psychology circles to evaluate our mental health. It even badly affected one of my assistants to the point that he had been begging to be sent back to the Lifehold. Wait a sec, maybe an ark somehow managed to find a wormhole? Ugh, I’m going to stop thinking about this right now; I’ll let our scientists ponder these thoughts._ ’

“You’re quite welcome Tetsuya-san.”

“Actually, something came to mind, where are the others? Also erm, did you three work all night? I don’t want you pushing yourselves.” Tetsuya asked this as he noticed Totori and Arisa missing, in their place are the decapitated bodies of his team and a grand total of eleven helmets around them, two being on the ground, suggesting that Totori and Arisa removed theirs before leaving.

“Oh don’t worry about that! They woke up before you and I’ve made sure they got food and water. They went to take a little walk around the village. Clear their minds and all that jazz. And of course not. We slept through the night since it’s dangerous to do construction work without any light.”

“Thanks for telling me Crossette. I think I’m going to do the same, mind accompanying me?”

“Sure thing!”

* * *

 

After flexing his arms to help wake up, the two walk toward the door and push it open, later walking down the cliffside to the village, seeing Totori and Arisa leaning onto the edge of the fountain, watching the flow of water rather absentmindedly, though he noticed Floren and Gorg call out for Crossette who went to join them in their objectives

“You two okay?”

Hearing Tetsuya speak led Arisa to turn her head in his direction

“Hey Tetsuya, and kinda. You’re a goddamned asshole in my eyes for making me drink that rancid plasma, I know it’s the lesser of two evils in this situation but damn I’m freaking salty about that. Ugh, my throat still feels like it’s being set aflame.”

“Exactly my point Arisa. I’m not going to risk losing nine people when I can make it eight. If I had my equipment, I could’ve refined the plasma to make it pure so you would only need one dose injected into your bloodstream, nice and simple. Oh yeah, and thanks for reminding me. The schedule for the plasma has to be done in the morning and before nightfall.” An evil grin began to emerge on Tetsuya’s face as he pulled out the vial he concealed in his armor and the glass he had poured the plasma into the night before.

“N-No! Y-You keep that shit away from me!” Despite her pacing backward to create distance between her and Tetsuya, Arisa didn’t make any sort of attempt to attack since she understood that breaking the vial in any way would spell disaster for them. She understands that it’s entirely possible that Totori or even Tetsuya could end up in situations where they would need this impure plasma as much as she does, despite her resistance. She’d never want to intentionally do anything that could lead Tetsuya or Totori to harm.

Seeing the back and forth from the pair led to Totori laughing like a schoolgirl “You two always have these kinds of interactions and it’s never gotten old. I love it.”

“D-Don’t just stand there Totori, help me!!”

“Totori, I need you to help me keep Arisa still so I can give her the plasma her mimeosome needs.”

“Leave it to me Tetsuya-kun.” After listening to them both speak, Totori spoke to Tetsuya almost instantly after he made his request, maneuvering herself to restrain Arisa.

“You traitor! I thought you were on my side!”

“Come on Arisa, be serious here. Because of your prior injuries, your mimeosome is dependent on this plasma right now. _I will_ hold you still by force if I have to. Remember that I was able to withstand Vandham so you can’t break me.”

A whine followed through on Arisa’s part, knowing she’s outnumbered and will have no choice but to drink the plasma, reluctantly walking back to the fountain as Tetsuya prepares the plasma

“Well, now that we have water, this dose of plasma should be a little better tasting. Remember we had to act fast and without an immediate source of water, I had to liquify grass.”

“Just...I want to get this shit over with.”

* * *

 

After Tetsuya finished giving Arisa her next dosage of bio-circulatory plasma, her face warped into irritation and unease at the taste of the plasma she had to drink

“Ugh. Little bit better but it still tastes, and smells, like trash. I can’t help but wait until I get pure plasma in my bloodstream. Back to the bi-monthly operation.”

“Don’t worry Arisa, you only have to keep this up for a couple more days.”

“Speaking of that Tetsuya, what the hell are we supposed to do for the next nine days until reinforcements arrive? With only three of us, I know you’re going to be forbidding exploration.”

“Honestly, I think we should simply stay on standby, maybe try helping the Blades rebuild Fonsett?”

When Totori was about to speak, she was interrupted when Sumit fast approached them with a small box in his hands

“I finally find you friends you know!”

“Sumit, what brings you here? I thought you’d be with the other Ma-non in the tower.”

“We happened to overhear conversations about ether and how you were able to bond with Blades Tetsuya Yuasa. We took a break and fashioned together some special modules for Totori Nakagawa and Arisa Ando. It is considerably crude and improper for long-term use because of how slapdash they are, but with it equipped, you both can tether ether and therefore bond with Blades of your very own.”

“Woah, if we have these things attached to our mimeosomes, we can awaken Blades like Tetsuya-kun?”

“We are very certain of this you know.”

“Careful you two. Don’t get too excited about this. Bonding with multiple Blades is risky for these mechanical mimeosomes. My model is next-gen and I felt nauseous and heavy with a condition mirroring sickness after summoning Crossette, Gorg, and Floren. For your own sake, stick to one. Put the modules on while I go get Poppi. She summoned their core crystals after all. I think she’ll be with the other Blades.”

* * *

 

Leaving the trio by themselves to find the other Blades, whom have gone to one of the building foundations at the edge of the plateau, branched out around it

“Hm, what remains of the foundation here suggests that it used to be a house or something similar? What do you think we should build here Gorg?”

“Difficult to say Crossette. Depending on what our Driver and his companions desire in this village, it is a conflict of military versus civilian orientation.”

“Based on what I’ve been thinking about the situation and what I know about this, our Driver is trying to establish a foothold on this world. If this is true, I think devoting this area to military observation is wise. Look around, you can see so much of the surroundings here. Let’s allocate a watchtower and perhaps even some barracks here.”

“Oh! He’s right there, let’s ask him ourselves Floren!”

As soon as Crossette had noticed Tetsuya approach, the quartet quickly scrambled to meet him, Tetsuya noticing that Poppi was among them but hidden out of sight behind the ruins

“What brings you here Driver?”

“Good morning Gorg. I actually needed Poppi to come with me to the plaza for a few minutes. We’re hoping to summon more Blades. The Ma-non are giving Arisa and Totori special modules that can help them channel ether like I can and I’d appreciate it if you could do the same thing you did yesterday to bring Crossette, Gorg, and Floren to us.”

“ **Of course Tetsuya. Poppi would be honored to help in any way Poppi can.** ” When Poppi had made herself seen, he saw that she was in her Quixotic Tutelar form.

‘ _Geez, this girl constantly changes form, it’s making my head hurt, even if I can just call her Poppi._ ’ Tetsuya genuinely was beginning to get migraines from Poppi’s constantly changing form between Alpha, Quixotic Tutelar, and Quantum Technochampion “Anyway you three, I heard what you said about this immediate area and I’ll give you an answer as soon as we return. I have a good idea on what to put around here. Just hold tight for a few minutes until we awaken our next pair of Blades, but keep an eye on the perimeter. If you see anyone or anything approach the plateau with the intent to climb, rush back to us and we’ll establish a defensive line. Even if it is a fellow Blade, it would be wise to be cautious and flag anyone as a potential enemy. But refrain from attacking until I say otherwise, just in case they’re peaceful.”

“Understood!” The three all salute at Tetsuya’s request as Tetsuya and Poppi return to the plaza, seeing Totori and Arisa having silver headpieces on their foreheads with small blue crystals embedded at the center.

“So is that the conduit that will allow you two to channel ether?”

“Yep. According to Sumit, these headbands are magnetically sealed to our heads and can only be removed by inputting a specific combination sequence. It’s weak like he said, but I can feel a strange sort of power coursing through my body.”

“I’m ready to get this going Tetsuya, so...how do we get these Blades?”

“Poppi, can you do the same thing you did yesterday to summon any new Core Crystals?”

“ **There are very few ether particles left in the air around this village right now so Poppi can only summon two more crystals. Any more would run the risk of leaving the Blades already here without a stable ether flow to sustain their lives.** ”

“You suck Tetsuya, you got four Blades when we’re only getting one each. Talk about unfair treatment.”

“Oh relax Arisa, this is temporary. We just need to wait for the atmosphere to replenish a healthy supply of ether.” ‘ _So I guess this is the downside to summoning Blades in short time spans. If we expend too much ether, we run the risk of losing our already living ones._ ’ “That’s okay Poppi. We don’t want to start damaging the atmosphere around here. Summon two more and then we’ll stop until the ether is replenished.” A moment passed as a thought suddenly emerged in his mind “Poppi, is the ether supply in this area naturally limited?”

“ **Okay Tetsuya. And to answer your question, it...shouldn’t be. Poppi feels like much of the ether has been drained to a severe extent.** ”

‘ _It must’ve been the tower that shot us down. So it exhausted a lot of the residential ether energy in the atmosphere. Gonna have to speak to the Ma-non later to change the munitions to something else. I don’t want our Blades dying on us with that tower being fired._ ’

* * *

 

Much like last night, Poppi took a few steps forward from where she was standing and extended her arms as the air around her this time begin to shimmer bluish-white and black, quickly stabilizing into two crystals held in Poppi’s hands as she turns heel and walks toward Arisa and Totori

“ **Arisa Ando-san and Totori Nakagawa-san. What Poppi has in Poppi’s right hand is an ice elemental Blade and in Poppi’s left is a Dark elemental Blade for you both.** ”

“Thank you so very much Poppi-chan. Arisa, which one are you interested in?”

“Eh, I’ll take the left. As much as I find your mental fortitude as such sometimes, you’re not the whole dark, scary, and brooding type. I’m not going to say I’m that kind of person, but I’m closer to it than you.”

Their minds decided, the pair approach Poppi and grab their respective crystal as they turn to Tetsuya, their expressions showing their confusion

“Bring the crystal to your chest and the rest should feel like clockwork.”

Blinking with even more confusion but ultimately doing what Tetsuya had advised and brought the crystals to their chests, surging with energy much like the ones belonging to Crossette, Gorg, and Floren, but unlike previously, when they all expected two individuals from the crystals, there were three as one of the crystals summoned a pair instead of a single person, Tetsuya noticing that neither Arisa or Totori had their bodies react in any negative manner unlike when he awakened Crossette, Gorg, and Floren

‘ _Is it because I awakened three Blades at once or...-? But Poppi said I was...wait. She was going off of mere sight so of course she would assume as such. So I don’t truly have the aptitude to bond with Blades. I guess I’m in such good shape because of my mimeosome. And to think that Arisa called me lucky to have summoned three Blades. THEY’RE the lucky ones having no side-effects. For the time being, I don’t think I have to reveal this concern right now since my mimeosome is capable of recovering from this ether fatigue. But I’m suddenly jealous now._ ’

“I’m Ursula. It’s a pleasure! Shoulder to the wheel! Am I right Beary?”

“Kasandra here! Every day and night of my life will be spent to ensure great fortune and happiness.”

A few moments passed as Totori and Arisa took a long glance at the trio summoned from the two crystals, the former clearly reaching the limit of her self-control as she nearly felt the temptation to jump a full yard

“Oh my god, you are so adorable! I-I know this is really short notice and I know you were just summoned, but c-can I hug you two?!”

“I don’t mind. And Beary doesn’t mind either.”

“~EEEEE~” Totori outright screamed in utter joy as she dashed toward the Blade and caught them both in a tight hug, the impact sending both Ursula and Beary to their backs as both Totori and Ursula begin chuckling and laughing in joy.

Whereas Totori had gone all out with her feelings when she tackled the pair, Arisa was far more composed and calmly approached her newly awakened Blade and extended her hand outward

“I’m honored to meet you Kas. I’m Arisa, your Driver I guess is the word? I hope we can work together amicably.”

“I very much hope for the same Arisa!” Taking Arisa’s hand with both of her own, Kasandra shook it vigorously with a big smile on her face but when Kasandra released her grip over Arisa’s hand, Arisa felt her body’s joints begin to lock-up and the arm she took from Yukari’s mimeosome was suddenly disconnected “O-O-Oh my god, are you okay?!?!?”

Being forced to initiate a soft reset to restore her body’s functionality when it had suddenly locked up which is preventing her from moving any part of her body or even utilize its vocal processors, Arisa finally was able to respond after grabbing the disconnected arm and reattached it to her mimeosome “Y-Yeah. I’m fine. This is a mechanical body. It can take a _lot_ of wear and tear compared to a human’s. Even if I lose an arm, all I have to do is reattach it. I just don’t understand what happened here. Maybe this body’s still a little too battered?”

“Arisa, why didn’t you tell me your body was damaged still?! I would’ve tried doing some maintenance on those parts to help you!” Even though she had been caught up in nuzzling against Ursula and Beary, Totori had not tuned out the world around her and heard Arisa’s body lock up and her transplanted arm disconnect.

“You’re not an engineer Totori, I can picture you actually making the parts worse if you tried ‘fixing’ them. Stick to your heavenly singing if I can be upfront. Besides, I ran a bunch of self-inspections to check this mimeosome’s durability and it was still at a fairly good seventy three percent, though you could argue it’s worrisome since it was at ninety five when we made it to this planet yesterday. Most of the damage came from that fight with the Milsaadi and that indign that killed Ryoma and Eisen.”

“Arisa, head back to the tower and ask the Ma-non to run some diagnostics. Double-no, triple check your systems to ensure everything is fine. I don’t want you to take any chances with this right now. Remember what I said regarding the Lifehold and our mimeosomes. I don’t want you losing the last five years worth of memory.”

“Sure sure. I got it. But if those freaky aliens pull out anything resembling a probe, I’m going the full nine yards and kick their asses to the moon and back! Erm, the way you’re saying that...are you two going to be heading out someplace?”

“If I were playing by the book, I’d keep us on this plateau these ten days awaiting reinforcements, but logically, we need to figure out the surroundings, see if we can find any new sources of food or materials. Having Aiko and Chomei with us would’ve made this far more simple since they knew what to look for in these kinds of materials, but of course they die to the Milsaadi. Totori, wait with Ursula here while I go meet with Floren, Gorg, and Crossette for a few minutes. I need to give them some direction for what to build at the outskirts.”

* * *

 

Once Tetsuya finished speaking with the trio, inspecting the landscapes and requesting a watchtower to ensure sight over the surroundings, to help supplement the eventual deployment of FrontierNav which would allow 24/7 surveillance of territories around the deployed probes, and an armory to keep armaments for the garrison if Fonsett were to fall under attack, Tetsuya, Totori, Poppi, and Ursula walked toward the stone pathway and climbed down the plateau to the fields where they first ended up the day before, back when they had the whole team, save Madoka, Yukari, and Zeshin

“So where do we go Tetsuya-kun?”

“Hmm…” Tetsuya turned his head in several directions before looking to the northeast “I think that way seems promising. Poppi, was there anything in that direction?”

“ **Yes. Ysheva Harbor was over in that direction. Rex helped establish trade route from Argentum to Fonsett with that harbor.** ”

“Heh, the more I hear of this guy, the more impressive he seems. I guess that’s as good a path as any. It does border the ocean so I think at some point we ought to re-establish a harbor there. Let’s head over there.”

“Driver, before we go any further, aren’t you going to take our weapons to use?”

“Eh? What do you mean Ursula? We’d be leaving you defenseless if we take your weapons.”

“Totori has a point, we’re already armed and comfortable with our weapons. If we find ourselves in battle, keep those weapons and fight alongside us.”

“ **So you mean, you want Poppi and Ursula to follow the doctrines of Torna Tetsuya? Where both Blade and Driver would fight alongside one another?** ”

“Torna? I distinctly recall you didn’t mention Torna when you talked of the titans or nations: Argentum, Gormott, Mor Ardain, Uraya, and Tantal. Was Torna lost before the creation of those nations?”

“ **Almost, but not quite. Torna was destroyed nearly six hundred years before Poppi was deactivated. But the other countries were very much active, save Tantal as it was created in the aftermath. In fact, another country was destroyed during Poppi’s ‘life’ with Masterpon. It was a small country called Indol who once controlled Blade distribution and required all Drivers to be registered by them. In the aftermath of Elysium’s creation, the Nopon merchant guilds funded a joint war against Indol’s militant remnants with Mor Ardain, Uraya, Gormott, and Tantal acting as the spear.** ”

“I see. I was kind of hoping that war was something only we humans invented, but I suppose all life goes through it. I-I think I’m good right now Poppi. Let’s keep moving.” Tetsuya’s voice was rather somber hearing of essential genocide having happened when they themselves were going through a revival of culture in the Renaissance or possibly earlier depending on how long Poppi has been inactive, wanting to shake off the uneasy thoughts and focus on the here and now right now.

* * *

 

Nodding in acknowledgement, the group continued their walk through the environs, walking through the sand pathway, Tetsuya and Totori finding the natural barricades quite exotic, resembling oversized shells, but the peaceful trek was soon interrupted as the earth began to shake under their feet as spikes soon emerged, the quartet jumped backwards to escape the blast, immediately followed by a wave of crow feathers appearing in such great numbers that it began to blind their sight but vague signs of green shockwaves coming from energy weapons could be seen behind the feathers

“Poppi, Ursula, get some barriers up now!” Tetsuya shouted fast as soon as he saw the shockwaves and as soon as the shields got projected over them, they were hit by said shockwaves so fiercely that Tetsuya feared they wouldn’t be able to withstand the barrage but it was thankfully alleviated when the attacks ended with the shields still holding strong “We’re under attack! Melee weapons free!”

Drawing their blades, they dashed forward where Tetsuya is quickly charged at by a young man with blonde hair wielding dual swords much like his but larger and made out of black and white metal and another humanoid who resembles a fox wielding knuckles much like Ursula who charged against Totori, trying her utmost to block the attack with her knife.

“Tetsuya-san, these are Blades like we are. Look below their necks.”

“ **Ursula is right. This is Nim and Corvin. They fought alongside us during our journey before Elysium. But if what you said before is true Tetsuya, I wonder who summoned their crystals?** ”

“Doesn’t matter. We need to repulse this attack! Poppi, Ursula, help us fight these two as much as you can.”

Tetsuya was quick to force Corvin reeling back as he pressed the attack as he joined by Poppi making the fight a literal six weapon battle as they are all dual wielding weapons though he was amazed at how well Corvin was able to match each of Tetsuya’s and Poppi’s strikes using one sword each, though nearly every strike Corvin dealt against Tetsuya was reflected by either Poppi’s barrier or Tetsuya’s own swordplay, making the Blade smile; meanwhile, Totori took a more cautious approach since she has a small singular weapon against Nim’s two knuckles, deciding to take a more acrobatic approach that she could only do in her mimeosome body. While her old human body was hardly infirm, far from it since she had trained for the military with Exodus, she simply couldn’t match career soldiers like her brother or Tetsuya since they both had been training with the Self-Defense Force before they had been reassigned to Exodus, synchronizing her battle with Ursula proper but it swiftly changed when Nim suddenly kicked her weapon out of her hand, the dagger sent flying into a nearby lake, Tetsuya rushing to Totori’s side as soon as he noticed her being disarmed and gave her one of his swords before dashing back into battle as Poppi had to pick up the slack and fight Corvin on her own and with one of his swords gone, he had to alter his style with more straight forward brutality to force Corvin on the defensive for the first time, sending him back when Tetsuya’s strike connected, the smile on his face only intensifying

“ **Been a while since I’ve had a challenge like this I will admit. You’re awfully strong you know that stranger? Alright Nim, stand down. These two aren’t hostile.** ”

Hearing Corvin speak, Nim leapt backwards to join him as Totori carefully steps toward the lake while holding Tetsuya’s sword and pulled it out while Tetsuya cautiously stood his ground until Totori rejoined him and took his sword back, both deactivating their blades leaving only the mantles of the grip and put them around their waists when they saw the Blades’ weapons dissipate

“Poppi, I want you to translate what I say to Corvin in case he doesn’t understand me.” After seeing Poppi nod, Tetsuya turned his attention to the foreign Blade “So what brought this decision to your mind Corvin? Why disengage from battle like that?” Like he anticipated, Corvin turned his head in confusion until he heard Poppi talk to him.

“ **Like I said. I could tell from your aura that you weren’t wholly interested in victory. You were more interested in self-defense. Besides, now that I’ve gotten a better look, you don’t resemble anything we’ve been fighting against lately and I don’t want us wasting our strength fighting neutral parties when it should be dedicated to our enemy. I actually bid farewell to Roc, Finch, and Godfrey the other day; they told us they were going to rendezvous with the Tirkin camped nearby. We’ve already lost the countries of Mor Ardain, Uraya, Indol, and many islands to this enemy, we hold Gormott and Tantal, though we’re being pressed hard, and this is considered uncharted territory, but our enemy has made significant strides on controlling this region. Honestly, this side of the continent is what’s left of ‘free’ land here. But I feel like we’re running out of time before Leftheria is lost to us. And if this enemy gains control over another continent, they’re going to have another whole avenue of resources to use against us.** ”

“Well, I think we’re the cause of this enemy, by the way they’re called the Ganglion, losing their ground here. We killed some of their people, freed the slaves they brought here, and took their AA tower. I used it to call for reinforcements so my people will be arriving to help us fight within the next week. If I may ask, are you determined to claim this continent? If so, I am willing to offer our assistance to aid your cause in exchange for letting us maintain dominion over Fonsett over there.”

“ **Hmm, if you’re speaking the truth, it’d be foolhardy to refuse when we’re spread thin and can’t get reinforcements from Tantal. We don’t have a base to secure a supply line. Would you be okay with splitting dominion with us in exchange for information and strategic support? I’m sure you lack knowledge about this world and we can provide key information and perhaps even get you connected with our resistance so we can present a dedicated force against the...Ganglion you call them. Before that, my fellow Blades and the Tirkin would be more than willing to assist.** ”

“That’s something I’d need to think about Corvin. Think about and consult with the Emperor about to be truthful. Actually, something just came to mind.” Pausing his train of thought, Tetsuya quickly turned to Ursula “Ursula, are you able to understand what Corvin is saying?”

“A little bit Tetsuya-san. His words are a little blurry but I can understand the general concept. It’s still something I have to repeat in my mind however.”

‘ _Does this mean that Blades we ourselves awaken speak our languages more fluently than the native ones? That’s really kind of concerning if so. These Blades are part of the same species but they can’t understand each other fluently. Because of us foreigners, we’re introducing a division in their populace. It’s going to be our responsibility to introduce a way to allow these people to speak with each other fluently, I just know it. Wait, I just realized: How can Poppi understand us? I can understand Crossette, Gorg, Floren, Ursula, and Kasandra since we awakened them, but why Poppi? I might need the Ma-non to check things out for me._ ’

“ **I suppose that’s fair. You don’t want to make any long-term moves without clearance? I certainly wouldn’t want to make any such moves without Mythra’s approval.** ”

“Yet you’re fine allying with random strangers?”

“ **I like to think of this as a temporary partnership to potentially pave the road to becoming full-fledged allies. That or simply agreeing to fulfill a common objective. If I may be dreadfully honest, I actually want to get off this continent as soon as possible and get back to Tantal. If we lose Tantal, victory will be that much more unlikely. We can’t afford to lose the ether reservoirs deep underneath Theoscaldia Palace.** ”

“Ha, how blunt. You remind me so much of Arisa, it’s hilarious.” Totori nodded in easy acknowledgement, grinning like a child as she too can see the similarities between Corvin and Arisa “Could you go find these Blades and the Tirkin and bring them to Fonsett? We’re using that place as our base and home. We’ve awakened a number of Blades already and they’re helping us restore the area for habitation. Oh, but be careful okay? I was told that we’ve drained a lot of ether from around Fonsett.”

“ **So** **_that’s_ ** **the disturbance Kit and Sunny felt around here! Corvin, we can’t trust these jerks who are stealing our precious ether!** ” As soon as Nim finished speaking, she summoned her knuckles and took up a fighting stance, making Tetsuya and the others summon their own weapons.

“ **Calm down Nim. You know that awakening Blades in such short periods of time is taxing when it comes to ether. I’m sure these foreigners simply didn’t know about about this resource. Remember that Mythra had told us that she had pushed the supply of ether to its limit over a hundred times summoning Blades to establish an army to fight the enemy. They’ve really been striving to break us in the last two and a half months. Remember that they’re trying to expand their hold on Tantal and Gormott and if they succeed, our ability to hold ground there would be at risk. Those bipedal beastmen in particular have been ferocious, them and those steel giants. Every time we’ve fought them, victory has been pyrrhic for us. They’re too good at shattering our core crystals and they fall back before we’re able to fell too many of them. Remember that we’ve lost Dolmes, Agate, Aegaeon, and thirty newborn Blades to these beasts ever since we had touched down on this continent. We’re down to you, me, Roc, Finch, Godfrey, and the Tirkin.** ” Corvin forced Nim’s hand down to cease hostilities, her weapons dissipating into the ether as Tetsuya, Totori, Poppi, and Ursula dropping their own battle stances

“ **Heh, yeah. We address featureless Blades as newborns since they don’t have any sort of distinctiveness to differentiate themselves from Blades like us. We’re special, ain’t we!** ”

‘ _If I were to follow Nim’s train of thought, does it mean that Blades like Corvin, Nim, and the ones we’ve awakened are considered fairly old because they have distinctive form? Wait, does that mean that these Blades possess a unique form of resurrective immortality? I really want to learn as much as I can about these individuals, but I should wait and consult their leader about this matter. I think it’s this...Mythra who leads these Blades?_ ’

“ **Oh, I’m sorry for getting caught up in this. I’ll go ahead and bring our group to Fonsett so you can meet everyone and later on, coordinate an attack on our shared enemy. We should be fully assembled here within two hours time. By your leave.** ”

“Go ahead. Make sure you get everyone back here.”

* * *

 

After seeing the pair run south in the direction of a cave, Tetsuya turned around in the direction of Fonsett

“Well, looks like we have to turn around and head back. I think we’ve acquired more than enough information from this little trek and like Pasteur once said, fortune favors the prepared and in this situation, being prepared means bunkering down with the locals.”

Tetsuya began his walk back to the village, but stopped in his tracks when he failed to hear Totori’s footsteps

“Erm, Tetsuya-kun, go on ahead without me. I want to look around a little. Don’t worry, as long as I have Ursula here with me, I’m sure I’ll be fine. I’ll stay around this area that Corvin said is free.”

“I’m only going to say yes if you accept this sword.” To emphasize, Tetsuya took the deactivated sword on his right side and passed it to Totori.

“Oh fine _dad_.” Totori sneered with a sarcastic frown as she took the sword “I’ll be back long before nightfall. I just want to see some sights is all.”

Hearing the mention of that particular word made Tetsuya frown profusely as an old memory suddenly surfaced in his mind as he hung his head slightly downward

“Totori, do you regret the way you left and not try to make amends with your folks? You said you got into a huge fight with your parents when you said you wanted to join Exodus, same with your brother. You hadn’t talked with them for years and well…” Tetsuya stopped in his tracks since he simply didn’t know how to continue.

“Yeah. I wish I had been able to try getting my parents’ blessing again, especially with our engagement. Hopefully I could get them to forgive nii-san too. But they’re dead and they’re never coming back. I’m not going to waste my time thinking about what could be. Earth is gone. Everyone who wasn’t on an ark is gone. Even then, a lot of them got shot down according to our reports.”

“That’s not healthy Totori. A person’s relationship with their parents is special compared to others and you left yours on a bad note. I’m more than certain it’s eating away at you, even if you’re not admitting it. Answer a hypothetical question of mine Totori. What if you lost your brother too?”

Hearing Tetsuya speak made Totori severely snarl, her face warped into that of pure unbridled rage which was remarkably uncharacteristic of her “Tetsuya-kun, don’t try to psychoanalyze me. Nii-san and I did the right thing by sneaking out in the middle of the night behind our parents’ back to join Exodus since it got us on arks which meant we had a chance to live, even if it was slim considering what happened on doomsday. My parents were idiots, held back by old traditions. If I had been the obedient little doll they wanted me to be, I would’ve been killed alongside everyone else left behind on Earth. While they had recruited nii-san since he was among their list of candidates, they weren’t sure what to do with me or whether to even keep me around, but I persisted enough to have me sent to Vandham-san and the Skelleton Crew when he was transferred to help condition the troops there. That bastard tried so hard to break me much like all of the other soldiers under his charge, but I pushed through and showed no weakness. Honestly, that’s part of my life now.” With this rage vented, Totori’s expression softened as she took a deep breath “As to the question you asked of me. No idea really, but I would be worried sick nonetheless. He’s the only real family I have left and we have a very close bond. Sure, I am engaged to you and I do consider Arisa a sister, in addition to how Reina-chan, even though she’s your fifth cousin, but society tends to only care about the legitimate side of things.”

“Noted. I’m heading back, so stay safe.”

* * *

 

Waving his hand as he turns heel, walking back to Fonsett with a clear objective on his mind: getting the village restored for the Blades and Tirkin arriving and the upcoming Wolf squadron. Upon making it back, Tetsuya joined Crossette, Gorg, and Floren in building the watchtower, Poppi being sent to check up on Arisa and Kasandra, refining the structure before walking to the opposite end of the plateau which is going to be dedicated to agriculture, learning along the way that Arisa and Kasandra were still in the tower, the Ma-non still running diagnostics on her mimeosome, when he was awakened from his focus with Crossette running up to him

“Tetsuya-san, there’s a large force approaching the plateau!”

Tetsuya quickly joined Cossette to the edge of the cliff where they saw several Blades, if the presence of Corvin and Nim were any indication, followed by a small army of humanoid bird like creatures

“Don’t worry Crossette, they’re not hostile. They’re on our side actually. At least, for now, maybe. I’ll take care of the situation, stay here and work on the field.”

“Driver, you should let one of us accompany you to ensure your safety. If you die, we will all be returned to the ether. None of us wish this to happen. We would sooner die ourselves if it would mean you would survive.”

“If you’re determined Gorg-” Although Tetsuya wanted to see this gesture as frustrating, he quite simply saw it as endearing hearing the Blades wanted to keep him safe at the cost of their own lives “Then could you join me for this meeting? Floren, go get Arisa, Kasandra, and Poppi and then head back here to help Crossette.”

As the trio walked through the pathway to the village, Floren heading to the tower to bring the trio to join him and Gorg in meeting the Blade entourage that was dispatched from the resistance in the country of Tantal according to what Corvin has said, three new Blades behind him and Nim, Tetsuya having a good idea who is who just by sight and recalling their names after hearing them from Poppi, suspecting the large human-like bird Blade is Roc, the smaller bird Blade is Finch, and the last is Godfrey, with roughly eighty of the Tirkin in a tight square formation behind the Blades, Tetsuya’s group mirroring said formation with Arisa, Kasandra, Gorg, and Poppi behind Tetsuya, briefly turning his head as he gestured Poppi to stand next to him since he wants translation to be conveyed clearly

“ **Thank you for giving us sanctuary here- Er, I actually didn’t catch your name. I couldn’t understand that one Blade all too well.** ”

“Yeah, it was a chaotic moment though it was something we were provoked into. My name is Tetsuya Yuasa, commander in chief of the Rihabiri’s military forces. We represent a portion of what remains of the human race from planet Earth; well, Arisa, Totori and I do.”

“ **Is it just you three here?** ”

“No, we had a team of twelve to survey this area, but we lost our pilots and our shuttle to that anti-air tower, an indigen killed two of my people, and the rest were killed by the Milsaadi that were here. We do have two other teams, but they were sent to other continents. We sent them to continents east and west of here.”

“ **East and west?** ” Corvin pondered these words as he looked downward, his hand cupped in his chin before shooting back upward “ **If you’re talking about east and west from this continent, you sent your teams to Indol and Uraya! The Ganglion are heavily entrenched there!** ”

‘ _Oh shit! That’s not good. And our command contingencies insist on radio silence after one transmission in case we encounter a situation of enemies attempting to triangulate our location. They’ll have shut off their communicators. Hopefully Akira and Hachiro are able to find a place to bunker down and survive for the next week and a half. Once we get Wolf squadron down here and take control of this continent, I’ll start sending them all over the planet and begin guerilla warfare against the Ganglion and more importantly: make sure they are safe._ ’ “Unfortunately, we’re not in a position where we can contact them further. I already contacted them and they shut down their communicators to prevent interception. We’ll have to trust in their ability to persevere. Anyway, could I ask you all here to help reconstruct the village? If this is going to be a base of operations for our mission of securing Leftheria, it should be orderly. Crossette, Gorg, and Floren are in charge of the effort.”

“ **Of course. Let’s lend a hand everyone.** ”

* * *

 

With the arrival of what remains of the resistance forces that was sent to Leftheria, it took very little effort to really begin rebuilding the village and kept them all on task so much that they forgot to keep track of time. Upon returning, Tetsuya had gone to Sumit and subtly inquired about how Poppi can understand him, the Ma-non saying he would investigate as to why she can understand him, knowing the opposite is possible because of translators they possess. After getting so engrossed with the work, Tetsuya noticed that nightfall was soon to come when Arisa approached him with her face showing her utter hesitation toward whatever is on her mind, something Tetsuya would’ve considered uncharacteristic back when they first met back in late 2043. Arisa was beyond fiery, and while loyal since she had a military background like him, she was far more to take crack shots and question his authority since she, for a time, thought herself superior since she took down a third dan martial artist rather easily, but grew ‘tamer’ when Tetsuya was promoted upon his transfer to the Skelleton Crew, more so when they got to know each other and were working together, particularly when Arisa began seeing Tetsuya as a commander who wouldn’t think of her mindset being inherently negative. It grew to the fact that, while Arisa had been assigned to four other units including the one spearheaded by Reina Yanagawa, whom is Tetsuya’s fifth cousin who was also brought into Exodus: Silver Pleiades and adopting the alias of Merope as custom for the squad, while Arisa would fulfill her duty no matter what, each leader reported she felt uneasy and out of place when others attempted to get her more included in their synergy, and reports showed that her performance records were highest under Tetsuya’s command which led Elma to the decision to create a new specialized squad comprised of herself, Arisa, Tetsuya, Alex, and two newcomers in Nao Yuasa and Totori Nakagawa, since she knew Arisa had great potential which was being squandered with the decisions being made prior.

“Hey Tetsuya, I’m...I’m ready for that next dose of plasma. I...I won’t fight ya since I know how important this is to us all. Also erm...where’s Totori? Wasn’t she supposed to be back by now?”

“Now that you mention it, she said she’d be back by now. And with enemies still on the continent...Hey, Corvin, Roc, Poppi, come here you three!” Having seen the trio walk by with several of the Tirkin on their way to the tower since Tetsuya called them all to rest for the night “Listen, Totori and Ursula were supposed to report back here hours ago and I’m worried. I’m putting together a search party. Wait for me at the village entrance immediately. Summon your weapons just in case.”

After seeing the Blades rush off, Tetsuya and Arisa walk to the fountain where he fills the glass she had brought with her with water, adding the mixture to refine the substance into bio-circulatory plasma and then passes it back to Arisa, holding the glass with a frown, reluctantly bringing it upward and drinking it, squirming as it goes down her throat, her body slightly shaking as she quickly began to fall to her knees, Tetsuya rushing to catch her.

“Thanks. I’m going to...I’m going to go lay down for a while.”

“Take it slow Arisa.” Looking around to see if anyone else is around, he sighs in relief when he saw Crossette walking toward the tower “Hey Crossette! Could you come here a sec?” Moments after calling out to her, she dashed toward him

“What’s up Tetsuya-san?”

“Could you bring Arisa to the tower? I’m going to go look for Totori and Ursula. They should’ve been back hours ago and I’m worried.”

“S-Sure thing! Do you want the others to accompany you?”

“Not needed. I have Poppi, Roc, and Corvin waiting for me. If I do need help, I’ll contact Arisa and then you can bring in as many people as needed.”

With his business now concluded, Tetsuya rushed to the entrance where Corvin, Roc, and Poppi were waiting for him, quickly reaching the area where Ysheva harbor once stood, Tetsuya stopping when he saw the Blades begin to collapse

“Woah, are you guys okay?”

“ **N-Not quite. The ether in the air around here is being drained to its absolute limit. Something’s causing it to drain.** ” Tetsuya was shocked to see that Corvin, who had been so full of energy back in Fonsett, is now looking like he had been going days without sleep.

“Are you three going to be okay going further? If not, just go back to Fonsett.”

“ **No...we’ll be...we’ll be fine going on. We may have just met, but if we retreat now, it’d be give us a very bad impression if we want to become allies. You know, us retreating where it’s safe while you go off into the maw. We’re going with you.** ”

“Corvin, right now, I’d rather have you all alive when it comes to that matter. I actually prefer cowardice over overconfidence to an extent since it can lead to you surviving a lost battle. If I lose you all, I lose all ties to your alliance and worse: they might see us as enemies like you did. Your survival means that it’ll be easier for us to establish a connection.”

“ **Well, when you put it that way-** ” Corvin paused and pondered his thoughts before looking upward, his expression hardens with finality “ **We’re still going with you. As much as you say that our loss would hinder the alliance, your loss would be just as harmful, if not more so for us all, since you are the leader of your people’s military. If you are lost because of our own cowardice, it is unlikely that your people will trust us. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of them declaring war against us when our hands are tied fighting the Ganglion. Even if we are lost, as long as Finch, Godfrey, or Nim is able to report back to Lady Mythra, things will hopefully work out.** ”

“Good enough point. Let’s get moving everyone!”

* * *

 

Continuing their dash through the environs, they quickly see Totori and Ursula being faced down by thirty Milsaadi, three of them deceased though Ursula is visibly panting and on her knees behind the bear that had been summoned alongside her, leaving Totori standing, standing strong with Tetsuya’s loaned sword drawn, though they quickly noticed a multi-colored humanoid moth hovering in the sky near the Milsaadi

“ **Tetsuya, that Blade is Obrona! She has the ability to sever the flow of ether. Until we can remove her from the battle, we Blades will be almost useless in this fight. Poppi thinks it’d be better to abstain from this fight.** ”

“Two against thirty? I’m good, but I’m not _that_ good. Poppi, I need all of your help in this. But I know the situation is not good for us. Hmm...listen. Grab Totori and Ursula and get back to Fonsett. Rally a defensive line. I’ll try to buy you guys some time.”

“ **I’m not going to let you fight this battle alone. These people have been a plague on us. I won’t let them be our undoing by allowing a potential front from a new enemy when we’re stuck with one enemy. We’ve lost too much ground in this war against the Ganglion; we only have two continents left under our control, with Leftheria being contested ground. They have Mor Ardain. Uraya. Indol. So many of the smaller island nations too. In the end really, I personally don’t care if you decide to backstab me and claim Leftheria for your people in its entirety. Better a neutral third party than our enemy. I feel Lady Mythra would disagree with me, but I have to make the call I believe is best.** ”

“Corvin.” Tetsuya quickly shook his head to clear his thoughts “Fine. We can talk later. Everyone, get down there and help me fight the Milsaadi down there. I’ll try to get Obrona out of the fight. Keep those guys off me as best you can until then.”

Noticing Tetsuya’s warped expression into pure anger and concern with Corvin’s determination, seeing Poppi and Roc sharing the sentiment, the group rush down the path to join the pair, quickly forming a line around Totori, the sudden emergence of reinforcements making the Milsaadi refrain for a brief moment

“T-Tetsuya-kun, you have no idea how glad I am you made it when you did! Ursula just collapsed from exhaustion when that Blade there got here. She lost her connection to the ether so what little she has is being used to keep herself alive.”

“Don’t worry, we’re going to kick some serious ass.” Tetsuya paused as he inspected the battlefield, both at the enemies in front of them all and to his allies “Totori, is your raygun still operable?”

“It took some hits from the Milsaadi’s blades, but yeah.”

“Okay. Pass me my sword and try to blast that Blade out of the sky. Corvin, Roc, Poppi, Ursula, and I will try to buy you time.” The plan decided, Tetsuya turned to face his Blade allies “Keep them scattered and away from Totori until she can get Obrona out of the fight. There’s five of us so we will need to fight six at a time. I know the ether here is severed, but draw out the fight until Totori can take down Obrona.”

“ **Understood. I am reluctant to follow this plan of action since she is a Blade like us, but she is our enemy and actively fighting against us.** ”

‘ _Roc has a point there. Why is Obrona working with the Ganglion when the Blades are at war against them? Well, obviously someone is summoning these crystals and awakening them, but based on what I can figure, not every Blade is capable of summoning core crystals so either someone betrayed the Blades or the Ganglion captured one of their leaders and is forcing them to summon Blades for them. Neither situation is promising._ ’

With the battle plan confirmed, Tetsuya and the Blades charged forward as they branched themselves out to keep the Milsaadi occupied, though it quickly became apparent for Tetsuya that defeat is inevitable since they are outnumbered against fresh fighters, Totori’s attempts to remove Obrona from the battle failed as she was able to create barriers much like the ones Poppi and Ursula could make, the futility leading Totori to take up her knife and throwing herself into the thick of battle, the chaos of the environs being amplified with the death of Roc and Corvin with only two Milsaadi dropping coupled as Tetsuya and Totori began sustaining heavy wounds, the former having his right arm slashed in half and thrown toward one of the nearby shells, making it leak bio-circulatory plasma whereas Totori was run through with several swords and thrown to the ground. The catalyst for these final attacks was Ursula being restrained by four of the Milsaadi and Poppi intercepting a strike that would’ve killed Tetsuya since she couldn’t create a barrier with Obrona’s presence, falling to the ground as electricity began crackling throughout her body

‘ _Dammit! I knew this would happen, but...dammit! These Milsaadi are monsters, worse than anything we’ve ever faced! What do we do? With this many Milsaadi here, they’re sure to attack Fonsett and if we lose the village, we lose our foothold. Yes, we could eject the habitat unit from the Rihabiri, but there’s no guarantee we’re going to stay on this world and I’m not taking the risk of losing the one unit we have. We could build a replacement, but it’d take years. Guess I’m going to lose the last five years worth of memory...sorry everyone._ ’ Closing his eyes to accept his demise soon approaching, expecting to awaken in a new mimeosome perhaps a few weeks into the future and being told of the interim, very likely the scenario of humanity firmly losing any ability to maintain a presence on the planet, he is instead met with the sound of lightning coursing throughout the area when he heard a voice in the distance

[ **Empryean Salvo!** ]

Immediately opening his eyes, Tetsuya saw eight of the Milsaadi get struck by bolts of energy, quickly reducing their number to twenty as Tetsuya’s group had killed two of them, and after surveying the environs, Tetsuya recognized the arrival of eight individuals, all standing behind a woman with long blonde hair and gold eyes, wielding a massive sword with surging green energy

[ **Good job Herald. Now concentrate fire on Obrona before we run out of ether too. Perceval, Sever, Brighid, you three join me in fighting the enemy. Perdido, Pandoria, Perun, get those people out of this battlefield then join us. Move out!** ]

* * *

 

Seeing the battle resume with the new combatants, the dragon flying in the air quickly locking into combat against Obrona as the others dash into battle against the Milsaadi, their strength far exceeding anything he had seen prior, the quartet more than easily overwhelming the Milsaadi as the three designated Blades went to rescue himself, Totori, Ursula, and Poppi, bringing them a safe distance away, before joining in the battle

“This is bad. We _will not_ lose this land to these filthy energy abominations! Open a teleporter and summon the Valkenians. We will claim this land with the desecration of their blood and lives!”

“Yes sir!”

Taking off what seemed to be a shield attached to one of the Milsaadi’s arms and tossing it to the ground as it rapidly grew in size to a modular sphere with four spikes at the edges, with the center glowing green. Moments after its deployment, twelve large beastmen, the smallest being 6’6 and the largest being nearly 8 feet, of various orientation appeared from within, Tetsuya seeing metallic chokers embedded on their necks, each possessing a thin layer rapidly turning red as one of the Milsaadi pressed a button on a controller, followed by the beastmen writhing in pain, a clear indication that the chokers are the obedience collars Sumit had mentioned the day before

“It is time for you pitiful beasts to earn your keep. Serve your masters!”

‘ _It’s worse than I feared. A part of me hoped that the obedience collars interfered with the Valkenian’s perceptions, not cause them physical pain._ ’ After recalling the situation he had heard from Sumit: knowing that the Ganglion are keeping the Valkenians enslaved for their strength, and information he received from Corvin that these beastmen are extraordinarily adept at neutralizing the Blades ‘ _I need to find a way to free these guys before the new Blades try to kill the Valkenians. But how? Hmm...Well, time to take a risk. But first-_ ’ “Totori, try and see if you can repair Poppi. Have Ursula help you if needed. But first, let me compartmentalize your mimeosome so you don’t lose any more bio-circulatory plasma.”

With the attention of all the combatants now focused between the Blades, and the Valkenians, the Milsaadi having been wiped out remarkably quickly by said Blades, also noticing that stray shots from the Blade in the air struck the teleportation system that had summoned the Valkenians, making it collapse and render inert, Tetsuya decided to gamble on their attention being kept on each other after committing to the process for both himself and Totori, seeing that one of the larger wolves among the beastmen was focused on the leader of the new Blades, suspecting he is the leader with the theory of size being a factor for leadership among them.

His mind decided, he took off into a sprint toward the wolf whom is locked in battle against the Blade with the large glowing sword, leaping into the air and taking hold of the choker with his left hand as he uses the computer systems embedded within his mimeosome to overload the circuits within the choker, the action causing the Blade to stop in surprise and the wolf attempting to force Tetsuya off of him

“Don’t worry big guy, I’m going to free you from your enslavement.” Tightening his hold on the choker, he is soon met with lightning emanating from the device, both of their bodies writhing in pain until Tetsuya is able to shatter a part of the choker, making it fall to the ground at the exact moment the beast was able to throw Tetsuya off of him, turning heel to face him on the ground

“I-I’m free?” A moment paused as the beastman inspected Tetsuya’s features, his face lightening up with surprise “Your biology and disposition; you must be among those Sumit summoned with his SOS. The humans of planet Earth.” Another moment passed as the wolf inspected the battlefield “I beg of you human, free my brethren before they are slain! I will keep them stationary for you to disable our collars. Free us and I swear to you, we Valkenians will be your sword and shield.”

“We can discuss these things later. For now, your people take priority.”

The pair took off into a run toward the other Valkenians, leaving the Blade leader baffled at what is happening in front of her before her glance solidified onto Tetsuya after he had departed

‘ ** _Wait a sec, why does that armor look so- his appearance. Hmm, the fog in my memory is so immense. Wait, I remember now! Tetsuya! Thank goodness I made it in time! After all these years, I’m going to be able to keep the promise we made._** ’ Deciding to spend a few moments watching the proceedings, trying to gain sense over what is happening as she sees another of the Valkenians freed from the collar and ceasing battle against Sever “ **Brighid, Perun, Perceval, our objective has changed. Focus on protecting that human and the beast leader while they destroy those collars. They seem to be what is making these beasts fight us. Cease fighting any that have them destroyed! Sever, Pandoria, Perdido, help Herald take down Obrona.** ”

Deciding to temporarily ally with the newcomers, Mythra dashed into battle as one of the Valkenians was about to strike against Tetsuya, intercepting the strike with her sword, solidifying herself to keep her opponent stationary, the distraction freeing Tetsuya to grab the choker and destroy it. Soon afterward, the Valkenians began realizing what is happening and shifted their attention onto Tetsuya, being intercepted by his temporary allies as they followed Mythra’s order whereas the three aforementioned Blades helped the one in the air fight against Obrona. With this aid, Tetsuya and the leader of the Valkenians on site were able to destroy the remaining collars at the same time of Obrona being defeated and returning to the ether, freeing them from their enslavement as the combatants began to form rank in front of one another, Tetsuya and Mythra in front of their respective sides, Tetsuya feeling confused at the smile from the Blade in front of him, wondering what is making her do this

“ **Tetsuya, you have no idea how relieved I am to see you. It’s good to see you again.** “

* * *

 

Hearing Mythra say this utterly confound him, wondering how this individual knows his name since he had never divulged it outside his ELF transmissions with Sumit and the other leaders of the Ganglion’s slave races on Alrest. Furthermore, the alignments of the Blades seem to clash since his contacts on the planet are either from the Rihabiri or among the Ganglion’s slaves. Amidst his confusion, he decides to try an idea since this person has seemingly interacted with Tetsuya despite him knowing he has never talked with her before this moment

“I’m sorry, but how do you know me? I’ve never seen you before.” The answer he was met was what he would deem as logical as Mythra appeared baffled by his words, seemingly unable to understand him this time around ‘ _What’s going on here? This situation shouldn’t be possible but the only thing that seems plausible to me is that I must have somehow gone into the past some time into the future. And if I’m able to converse with her normally, I must have been converted into a generation four mimeosome at the absolute lowest, unless the Ma-non were able to modify my current body for it? As Sherlocke Holmes says:_ _when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. As outlandish as it seems in the realm of science, this is the only thing that makes sense as I never had any sort of interaction with this woman._ ’

“ **Anyway, I’m surprised to see you.** **I thought the people here on Alrest were wiped out by those aliens. None of my scouts gave any indication of people surviving the initial invasion.** ” Although Tetsuya was able to understand what Mythra was saying, he knew it would not work the same way for him, but was nonetheless despondent having his fears confirmed: the Ganglion having exterminating much of the natives who had been living on this world but had to keep his expression stone cold as to avoid startling Mythra, knowing the only option is to use expression as he pointed in the direction where the Blades had brought him for safety and urged her to follow as he dashed toward Totori, Ursula, and Poppi ‘ ** _Now what the hell is he doing? Why is he not talking to me?_** ’ Despite his action pissing her off, she followed after him, taking glance of the group, stopping when her sight was trained on Poppi “ **Why does that person look so famil-Poppi!** ” Upon recognizing Poppi, Mythra dropped her sword in an instant and dashed toward the injured Blade, taking her in her arms “ **Poppi! Are you okay?!** ” With silence being her own answer, Mythra immediately turned her head toward Tetsuya, her previous irritation having shifted into that of absolute fright and concern “ **Please, we need to get Poppi repaired! Where is your base?! We need a safe place to fix her!** ”

Tetsuya frowned, wondering just what to do, before coming to a solution as he points in the direction of Fonsett, Mythra shifting her gaze in that direction

‘ ** _Isn’t Fonsett in that direction? Well, at least it’s familiar to me. I hope Rex’s grave is still there, undefiled. Ugh, now I remember. It’s been so many years since Pyra and I have been able to get here, what with the war and all. This two hundred year war that we’re slowly losing to these beasts and those mechanical giants. If our enemy doesn’t control it and Tetsuya does, maybe he would allow us to come and go. I just don’t understand why he seems so distant and not talking to me. Why is his speech so different from what I remember? Anyway, I guess Poppi was using the special module Tora built into her to summon Ursula for them. At least they are neutral at worst, but something worries me. How did those aliens get Obrona under their control? Only we Aegises can summon core crystals with the new system I made, I left Pyra in charge of the garrison in Tantal in my absence, as reckless as he is, Dagas wouldn’t make deals with them, Poppi is here so...Nia! Shit! They must have captured her somehow. Sorry Nia, but until I can triangulate your location and assemble enough Blades, you’re going to have to be a lower priority. I need to ensure Tantal and Gormott’s security above all else. It’s all we have left in Alrest. Surely she’ll understand._** ’ “ **All right everyone, we need to get moving. We’re going to their base of operations.** ”

With this decision made by Mythra as the Blades began following Mythra’s lead, Tetsuya looked toward his companions for a brief moment

“Totori, Ursula, can you two walk?”

“Not likely Tetsuya-kun. My mimeosome’s in bad shape. Down to thirty six per-.” Totori stopped for a moment when her voice began to crack “I think the damage is- spreading. ~vocal processor is beginning to malfunction.”

“I’m in pretty bad shape too Tetsuya-san. I’ve exhausted almost all of my strength protecting Totori.”

Hearing this made Tetsuya frown profusely before looking toward the Valkenians “Hey, could you guys come here?” To his public surprise, they had seemingly understood him “Wait, you know what I said?”

“Yes. The Ganglion forcibly implanted communicators onto our vocal chords when they beat us into submission two centuries ago and used those obedience collars to force us to fight for them. For the past one hundred and fifty years in fact.”

‘ _Two centuries?! It’s worse than I thought. So they’ve been fighting since our 1800s. When humanity was undergoing the industrial revolution. On one hand, it’s amazing that the Blades were able to keep their resistance going for such a long time. We lost Earth within a DAY. They’ve been fighting off the Ganglion for over a century! But on the other; the fact they’ve been fighting for so long it sacrifices civilian elements and incentivises military development._ ’ Shaking his head to clear his mind of this train of thought, he steadies his glance toward the beastmen in front of him “Look, my friends there need help getting back to our base. Can I ask you to assist us in returning?”

“You would trust us even though my people are part of the Ganglion? We would’ve killed you!” Despite the confusion, he had gestured some of his comrades to support Totori and Ursula as they followed the other Blades toward Fonsett as the pair slowly followed suite, keeping some distance as to keep their upcoming conversations more private

“Then let me ask you a question Thraaklon. Do you still desire to kill us? By the way, I hope you don’t mind that I act...oblivious and unaware of certain elements. It’s not that I distrust my friends, but secrecy is key right now.”

“That does not bother me. I understand your plight, since we forced it upon you. And we do not wish to fight you in the slightest Tetsuya Yuasa. You freed us from the Ganglion’s slavery. They force us to fight for them with those collars. All of my people, save this small group here are still prisoner to them. Once the Ganglion activate the collars, they will even see us brothers and sisters as enemies now that me and my kin here are free.”

Tetsuya simply smiled in response to this remark from the leader “There’s my answer. You guys didn’t want to fight us by your own free will. That, and how we know that your people, the Ma-non, Qlurians, and Illarians are being enslaved after Sumit sent his SOS on an ELF. You, Sumit, Esmeralda, and Sina. The Emperor, Akira, Hachiro, and I swore we would rescue your people.” Amidst the positivity, it soon began to dissipate into a grave frown “But I’m sure that our own people may not necessarily share our viewpoints. The japanese do have a bit of a history of xenophobia. I wish to say I am above it, but I carry some minor apprehension. Don’t get me wrong, I know we’re doing a noble act, but here’s the thing. It carries the risk of endangering my people. But if you don’t mind my asking, what are your people like? If we’re going to work together, I should start learning your mannerisms, history, things like that.”

“Then we will simply cross this bridge step by step. Prove ourselves to your people. Now, in response to your question: we Valkenians were feral hunters with clan based civilization numbering in the dozens or possibly even hundreds, prone to infighting. That is, until the Ganglion enslaved us two centuries ago and abducted us from our homeworld, now there are only twelve left. What little I know comes from my kin since I was born into Ganglion slavery. There is no Valkenian alive who has seen our original homeworld. Each clan had different traditions, cultures, way of life. We were impressed into one single group for them to control. They see us as only mindless beasts of burden and attempted to break us into complete submission and forget we are living beings, but we attempted to maintain our histories under their nose, to limited avail. Ironically, this actually served to unite us since we all despise the Ganglion more than each other, especially when the clans made me leader. They’ll follow my orders.”

Tetsuya frowned hearing the story of how the Valkenians lost their homeworld like the humans, even though he knows that the severity is different, and knows that because of what Thraaklon described his people as, he has a suspicion that they wouldn’t have the slightest idea of how to find their world aside from possibly constellations, if they had even studied them before being enslaved. “What about food? Do we have to jump leaps and bounds to keep your people fed?”

“You said Sumit is among you?”

“Yep. Him and a couple of Ma-non. We saved them from Milsaadi that were about to kill them.”

“Then I’m not worried. The Ma-non are very good with working with little. Although the Ganglion kept us all as slaves, at the very least, they understood that malnourishment would have us leading short lives and had the Ma-non design special hydroponic systems meant to grow food that can sustain us.”

“Hmm, I’m not sure if the tower has those systems-”

“Don’t worry Yuasa. It does. That tower was being built over a six month period and the Ma-non were tasked to develop the weapons alongside hydroponics in the basement. We’ve been here twice since the Ganglion forced us to be the ones who would secure this land for them. Ugh, those bastards are keeping my people at the edge of extinction. In the last month, I’ve lost two hundred hunters, and it’s left me with only around a thousand people left, all of whom are currently here at the outpost at the other end of the continent. And among them, I only have fifty women and children. I’ve been carefully trying to ensure the survival of as many of our clans as possible to maintain our cultural diversity, but my efforts are becoming strained as their numbers are dropping to double digits. Tetsuya Yuasa, you may think me as an irredeemable idiot, but my focus is geared toward preserving the clans ahead of what could be best for my people.”

“Thraaklon, your choices may be hasty, but the day I call you that is the day I run my real body through with a katana and refuse reincarnation through the Lifehold Core. With a bullet to the brain for good measure.” With this rather adamant response, Tetsuya took a moment to calm himself down before acting upon a question on his mind “Thraaklon, are these clans genetically different from one another or is it only culturally?”

“We’re all one people, so culturally.”

“This may seem like I’m trying to dictate the way your people live their lives and may seem contradictory to what I just said, but I genuinely feel like you need to focus on rebuilding your numbers since you’re on the edge of extinction. When we free your people, send your women and children to our ark where they’ll be kept safe, maybe a few males as well?”

“Your words have some merit to them. If you promise that they will be safe then I’ll commit my people to such a path.”

“Okay, there’s one last thing I need to ask. What do you know about the Ganglion presence here on this planet? How entrenched are these guys?”

“The Ganglion control 82 percent of this world, the Blades control 11 and the remaining 7 is ‘free’ land. If fortune favors us, that free land may soon be under your control here on this continent. If I may be honest, there’s more free land, but it’s small islands so I don’t count them. The Blades have been fighting a war of attrition for the past two centuries but they are slowly losing this war since the Ganglion have solidified their supply lines enough to begin creating skells and a mechanized army on site. The Blades are able to defeat Skells, but any victory when they are deployed are pyrrhic.”

“That is _not_ good.” Tetsuya paused for a moment, before remembering Obrona’s presence in the last battle, fighting for the Ganglion “Thraaklon, when did the Ganglion gain the ability to possess Blades of their own?”

“It’s been a month. Our ‘masters’ haven’t revealed the source but they began forcing us Valkenians and Qlurians to bond with Blades in combat roles, with a few Illarians on support. Good people have died because of this. At the very least the Ganglion have the Ma-non screen compatibility before making us bond with Blades after our first batch of failures and deaths. They know that killing us en-masse this way is a waste of valuable fighters against the Blades.”

“My condolences Thraaklon. We will avenge your fallen, don’t worry.” Tetsuya stopped as a new question suddenly emerged “Wait, why is the Ganglion so interested in this planet to the point where they’re willing to spend two centuries in warfare against the Blades? If they spent that much time fighting, they must have expended a great deal of supplies and manpower to maintain a supply chain.”

“The Ganglion wants to recreate the Cloud Sea that existed on this planet a millennia ago and find a way to implement it onto every world they control to have access to unlimited resources and expand their hold within the Samaar Federation. At least, according to what the Ma-non and Illarians have said.”

“Oh shit, that’s not good. W-Wait a second. The Samaar Federation? What’s that?”

“According to the Ma-non and Illarians, this federation is an interstellar collection of species who hold governance over six million light years of space. The Ganglion themselves are considered a tiny crime syndicate within their borders, controlling a fair number of solar systems and planets of various varieties. The Federation has been at war against an unknown species classified as Ghosts for a fairly long time now.”

“Six million light years?! If each galaxy is about the same size, then that means that the Samaar Federation controls sixty galaxies! I base this on how our Milky Way galaxy has a diameter of around a hundred thousand light years.”

“Milky way?”

“It’s what we humans call our respective galaxy. Now that I think about it, I’m not even sure if we’re in that same galaxy anymore. Anyway, we’re here. We should postpone any further revelations to maintain the illusion for the time being.”

“As you wish.”

* * *

 

After climbing the stairway, they quickly found Arisa, Kasandra, Crossette, Gorg, and Floren spread out through the plaza, with their weapons drawn against the Valkenians

“Don’t move a muscle xeno. If you so much as twitch your eyes, I will kill you all.” Tetsuya was rather shocked to hear such fury from Arisa. While he knew she was somewhat abrasive and upfront, she had never been _this_ angry toward anyone, especially when it escalated to death threats.

Seeing Arisa readying her psycho launcher for battle, Tetsuya dashed forward “Arisa, stand down! The Valkenians here are on our side!”

Seeing Tetsuya rush forward confused her for a moment, same with the Blades among them but the shock faded as Arisa’s expression regained its prior fury “Tetsuya, you _must_ be joking! Are you seriously going to trust xenoforms? They destroyed Earth!! I was willing to give you a pass with the Ma-non since they were going to be killed, but I refuse to see these beasts as anything less than enemies!”

“Arisa, that was not a request. This is an order. _Stand down._ ” Tetsuya repeated himself, his voice far graver as he was hoping Arisa would relent, drawing one of his swords in case Arisa decides to act, which would require him to intercept her before she strikes. If anything, he is surprised that _Arisa_ of all people is displaying the xenophobic nature he had warned Thraaklon of since she wasn’t raised in Japan. He actually sooner expected Totori to be more hesitant.

“Tetsuya. Xenos like them destroyed Earth. Millions of people- no, billions of people died for no good reason! They took my family! They took many of my friends! They took NAO from me!! I will _NEVER_ forgive these bastards!! Not until they are all dead!! Tetsuya, if you are so intent on defending those who have wronged us, then I will kill you too!”

Crouching down into a runner’s sprint, she dashed towards Tetsuya with rage blinding her senses as she quickly crossed blades with him, though he quickly noticed that unlike before, despite her strength, she was not presenting the same cohesion. Despite this weakness being noticed, Tetsuya was still being forced on the defensive and knew that prolonging this conflict would be dangerous and something he would still lose as he felt his grip on his blade trembling, so he swiftly raised his leg to knee Arisa in the stomach, making her double-take in surprise and with her focus broken, he quickly maneuvered his sword to send her own flying and with the advantage now his, he swiftly moved himself behind her and kept his sword trained on her neck to keep her still.

‘ _I see now. Arisa’s saying this because she’s still angry about everything that’s happened to us in the last five years. Nao refused to digitize himself in the Lifehold Core like other Exodus staff out of conflicts of personal ethics. She was pissed off when we reawakened her from the Lifehold Core and told her what happened. She lost her fiance and a person she cared for, arguably more than me and Totori in her eyes. It ruined me too since Nao was my little brother, but I had to stay strong and hide my sorrow as the head of the military and a confidant of the Emperor. Only Totori knows how badly his loss, in addition to all the people we couldn’t save, affected me._

_Several japanese arks were shot down and many of my friends were on those ships. I’ll admit the first six months was annoying since we had next to no one awake on the Rihabiri since our systems were so inert. Despite being on such a large ark, we could only maintain a population of one hundred people at first since our stockpiles wouldn’t last until we secured a stable production chain of food and materials in our greenhouses and factories. We only had our emperor, our command staff, Wolf squadron for military and defense, and some engineers and botanists to get our infrastructure developed. We needed to prioritize critical personnel vital to our survival at the time before we could start reawakening more and more people and thus revitalizing a sense of environment and economy. It took six months until I could get authorization to begin reawakening our second wave of passengers in the Lifehold Core: Totori, Arisa, Madoka, people like that._

_It saddens me that Reina-chan and her Silver Pleiades are still asleep with everyone else, even after five years since she’s among our sixth wave of passengers. With my parents gone with Earth and Nao taken by the Ganglion, Reina’s the only family I have left, even if most don’t consider us such because of how distant we are on our family tree._ ’

“Arisa, you may be a great fighter I dread fighting, but in your condition and how I am in a more advanced mimeosome, you clearly know you have lost this one. There is no joy in this, but I have to protect our allies and most importantly: I have no desire to harm my friends. Crossette, Gorg, Floren, restrain Arisa and Kasandra to the tower. They are to be placed under house arrest until reinforcements arrive from the Rihabiri.” As Arisa refused to relent, he felt compelled to have the Blades he awakened apprehend the pair.

While Arisa is the one being proactive in her rage, he doesn’t know how compelled Kasandra would be with following her Driver’s opinions and wanted to keep the chance of risk to a minimal, even if she has no desire to fight. The idea of turning Blades against each other is nothing less than tragic in his thoughts, and worse of all, close friends against one another since he had known Arisa for many years, but he has to keep some pragmatism in his actions “And in the meantime, Arisa is to salvage our inert mimeosomes for parts to repair us and get Poppi back to operational status.”

* * *

 

Obliging with Tetsuya’s request, the trio restrained Arisa and Kasandra and escorted them to the AA tower, Thraaklon stepping forward when things calmed down, gesturing his fellow Valkenians toward the offshoot on the plateau near where Corrine’s home was

“Well, that was...interesting. That woman reminds me of my late daughter. Anyway, I’ll have my people staying over there. So as to avoid causing any kind of conflicts.”

“Late? Oh.”

“Yeah, she was one of the first successful ‘Blade awakenees’ as the Ganglion labeled us, and was sent to the Blade’s stronghold on the continent of Tantal on a practical suicide mission to scout out their defenses with a tiny entourage two weeks ago. She was sent with her mother and my partner, a Gaul, and a Qlurian channeler. I have no idea if the mission was successful or not, but they were all slaughtered by the Blades. I was able to discover through Obrona that Mythra was the one who killed my daughter and partner, hence why I prioritized fighting her before you freed me from that obedience collar. Don’t get me wrong. I want Mythra dead for killing my family, but I won’t endanger any potential chances to establish an alliance. My people aren’t strong enough to fight the Ganglion since they eradicated many of our clans and enslaved the rest, your people aren’t strong enough, especially if they decide to bring in the full might of their army, even with your mimeosome army, the Blades might have been able to maintain a standstill but they’re losing this war. But if we can rally our individual factions, we might be able to present a strong front.”

“I-I’m so sorry Thraaklon. I know this is necessary to defeat the Ganglion here on this planet, but I’m essentially forcing you to work alongside your family’s murderer.”

“Tetsuya Yuasa, this matter is not open to debate anymore. I’ve come to peace with their deaths.”

“Thraaklon, I refuse to let this go unanswered. Look, you may be fine now, but there’s no exact guarantee that you won’t be overcome with emotion in the future. If you go wild, it threatens _all_ of our allegiances, not just between us and the Blades. And if we allow ourselves to succumb to infighting, the Ganglion will take advantage of it. I might be able to pacify the situation if I explain the circumstances to her.”

Thraaklon simply sighed in defeat, knowing that Tetsuya wasn’t going to budge on the matter “Very well. If you are so adamant on the matter, I will not stop you, even if I assure you that I can control my rage.”

“Anyway Thraaklon, something came to mind when you mentioned that the Ganglion controls multiple solar systems and planets. How quickly can the Ganglion summon reinforcements if they feel threatened?”

Hearing this one question made Thraaklon frown profusely “Hours. They can’t bring in Skells with the teleporters they have, but they could summon an army a million strong within half a day.”

“Thraaklon, this is _not good_. If we make too much progress against the Ganglion, they could undo all of our work within a week. Even if we can constantly harass them with my forces on rotation, we won’t be able to sustain such a one-sided crisis. Yes, I have a sizeable force tied to the Lifehold Core and can resurrect them endlessly as long as it exists, but we’re not warriors who can stand fighting for an eternity. All we want is to set down roots on a new planet after losing Earth. Our forces here are going to be extremely limited. If things get dicey, we’re going to need more allies.”

“That’s something we can’t help you with. We’re tribal hunters that were enslaved by a galactic crime syndicate, not some space age magisters. You would need to consult the Ma-non, the Illarians, or the Qlurians. They are all space-faring civilizations unlike us Valkenians. But you’re going to have better luck with the former two since they are established faces within the Federation, the Qlurians are lesser known.”

“Noted. I’ll talk with Sumit and see if he can get into contact with any potential allies when things calm down and we secure Leftheria. We need to maintain a smokescreen as long as possible. Let’s not rock the boat until I have plenty of military down here. Anyway Thraaklon, if there’s nothing else, I want to get to the tower and get this mimeosome repaired.”

“It can wait. Go get your body back in peak shape. I’ll go meet up with my fellow Valkenians. Don’t worry, we’ll keep quiet.”

* * *

 

Nodding as he turned heel, walking to the tower, seeing the environs becoming rather lively as the newcomer Blades met the strike team that had been dispatched

“ **Lady Mythra, why did you come all this way?! We need to keep Tantal secure!** ”

“ **Nim, the situation here demanded I come. As an Aegis, I know when Blades are awakened and I sensed Obrona being summoned from the ether here on Leftheria and I hadn’t received confirmation of her being summoned from Pyra, Dagas, or Nia, so I was worried. I summoned Brighid, Pandoria, and Perceval from our garrison and requested Herald, Perun, Sever, and Perdido from Gormott. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to save Roc and Corvin from our enemies but this area is safe, for the time being. Besides, I made a promise centuries ago I needed to keep. For centuries I hadn’t the foggiest idea what I was agreeing to, but when this blasted war began, I knew. As you know Nim, all of you, this two century long war has been taxing on us all. But if what Tetsuya there said is true, us allying with him will allow us to win this war.** ”

‘ _Woah. When in the future did I end up undergoing the process that led me to meet Mythra in the past? To make her, or rather me in the future, so confident that victory was in our grasp? With what Thraaklon is telling me, victory is bleak. What allowed me to change my perspective so drastically? Hmm...against overwhelming odds, the only thing that comes to mind is some powerful weapon or perhaps a new ally?_ ’

As if remembering something more, Mythra rushed toward Tetsuya and pulled out a small rectangular object from within her sword itself and presented it to Tetsuya “ **Speaking of which, there was one thing you entrusted to me for this very day.** ”

‘ _Wait, that’s one of our communicators Exodus designed. It’s worn down certainly, but it’s definitely our tech._ ’ Nodding in appreciation, Tetsuya took the communicator and walked out of sight of the people around him, wanting some quiet since he suspects this could be a clue as to what is happening. Once he is sure of his surroundings, Tetsuya inspected the controls, finding them near identical to the one he was issued by Exodus, quickly discovering a number of recorded messages within its memory banks [ **If this message is being activated, then that means Mythra kept her promise to me.** ] Even though he already knew this as truth, he was surprised to hear his voice coming from the message, though he soon noticed subtle static bleeps, suggesting that the messages were recorded separately but meshed together into one single recording, his mind immediately thinking things may be seem to be out of order, and bizarrely, he could hear a song being played in the background in loop, recognizing the vocals belonging to Totori but the voice is rather worn down and lacking enthusiasm, with some verses being far more distinct than others, the overall tone suggesting that Totori is forcing herself to sing this particular song based on the hesitant nature of her voice here [ **When those eyes in the mirror stare back at me. I’m reminded that the ghost of pride is clear to see. Doubt is crying out but I refuse to let it drown me. Wearing down my fight till nothing’s left.** **_I’ll wage war. I hate war._ ** **They say fight for peace… but what is that?  A cowardly façade weaves into my voice. As I call for war, blinded by this far-fetched noble cause. Although I had a choice, I believed the lies. But it’s all a dream, ending when I open up my eyes. My hand, can you reach it? My cry, can you hear it? Can you, can you tell me if this “dream” was worth it? Can you, can you help me? Wake me from this nightmare.** ]

[ **Okay look future-or rather, past me? Okay, this feels weird since I’m technically past you but I’m from your future. Now, I know our mind and you may wonder how I was able to communicate with Mythra. And it’s all possible because of this generation seven mimeosome body I am in. Our last ace in the hole to try surviving the war but ultimately in vain. Anyway, look, I beg of you. Don’t repeat the mistakes I made in what I call my failed timeline. The Ganglion all but won this war because of the poor judgements I made with the options I had available. Humanity stood alone, fighting an indomitable enemy in the Ganglion and dealing with the ire of what remained of the Blade resistance and defeat was inevitable. In a way, the Ganglion sending me into the past was a blessing for humanity when they intended it as a means of permanently fracturing the Rihabiri as the Emperor was slain, Akira and Hachiro were captured, and what little remained of our leadership broke under the pressure.**

**By the end, it was just me, Kale, and Reina-chan desperately trying to keep our forces unified. I can remember the day their Grandmaster threw me into the past despite the decades that passed me by. It was as if I was facing a shinigami, mocking my failures with the cruelest smile, asking if I had any kind of belief that I could attain victory.**

**Funnily enough, that beast doing this, separating me from the Rihabiri this way, may have actually allowed me to attain what I once could not. Where I had to deal with humanity having no allies aside from Sumit’s small group of Ma-non, I am hopeful that my interactions with Mythra and the preparations I am making will mean that humanity will actually have a chance to survive on Alrest and more importantly, the Blades being able to survive as a proper military since they were nothing more than fractured guerilla cells in my time. But even with the Blades on your side, the Valkenians were one of the greatest threats to our survival and a constant thorn. We learned only after killing them all that they were slaves to the Ganglion and thus were not necessarily loyal to them. Our ignorance led us to kill allies who could’ve given us crucial strategic support and information, in addition to labeling us as uncooperative to potential allies like the Blades. Furthermore, fighting the Valkenians drained our strength to the point where even Wolf squadron began losing hope in any sort of victory, especially when the Ganglion deployed their most advanced weaponry. And you know Kale never gives up no matter how perilous the fight is.**

**I knew I needed to find ways to avoid the errors I made somehow since I fear you will do the same I did, since I know how our mind works. That was when I remembered the state of the Ganglion’s slaves. I...I surrendered any possibility of rejoining the Rihabiri’s forces and spent the entirety of what was left of my life preparing for the day you set foot on Alrest. Knowing that my time is limited since I’m reliant on ether since my connection to the Lifehold Core has been severed, but I could feel that lack of a connection degrading my systems, I jury rigged an SOS signal designed to activate when it detected Ma-non computer signals, with a message meant to have the Valkenians, Ma-non, Qlurians, and** **Illarians** **begin to coordinate for freedom when you detect the ELF signal they send out.**

**There are two last things you need to know, but unfortunately...the transition into this seventh generation body was not seamless. Nearly a third of my memory was corrupted from the transfer between mimeosome bodies being so abrupt, but I do know this: Act fast. Save the Valkenians and secure Leftheria. If it is May like I pray, you will have some breathing room, but very little. Before the end of August, you must make a preemptive strike into Mor Ardain’s factories before the Ganglion finish the first of their ultimate weapons. Destroy them or capture them, that is your prerogative but ensure the Ganglion does not possess them! Unfortunately...this is where my memory is facing the most corruption so I do not know what this weapon even is. I’m sorry but I’ve done what I could to convey what I know to Pyra and Mythra to prepare us all for the upcoming war discreetly.**

**Lastly, I asked Mythra to watch your progress and have you undergo a trial when she believes you are ready, which may be as soon as you free the Valkenians, but I’m not going to pretend to understand an immortal’s mind so it may be sooner or later then that. Especially if her mind is strained with war against the Ganglion. Speaking of whom, for the time being, use this communicator to speak with the Blades since it’s built with some of the Ma-non’s communication systems tailored to the Blades.**

**And...try not to reveal too much about my timeline to anyone else so as to not to shock them, or worse, possibly introducing a paradox since something like this defies conventional science as much as we know. Pyra and Mythra recorded everything I was able to convey to them so you can consult with them if you need answers. I’ve done my part and did everything I could, so I’m going to shut down this mimeosome and have Mythra and Pyra seal me away, to avoid the natives having access to Ma-non technology. I am...I am eager to sleep. At the time of me recording this final segment, I’ve been stranded in this era for forty years in isolation and it’s made me...vulnerable since our human minds generally aren’t meant to be alone for such long periods of time.**

**We agreed it’s risky to facilitate technology uplifting, even if it could protect the natives here. It could summon the Ganglion sooner than anticipated and endanger our mission. Urg-T-This is it. I’ve been reliant on the ether since the Lifehold was being destroyed before I was cast out. Only now do I realize that the corruption to my memories was done because of the Lifehold’s damage and not the abrupt transfer between the two mimeosome bodies like I originally believed. But the ether isn’t capable of sustaining this life indefinitely with the Lifehold’s absence, in addition to how I’ve felt that very ether feel like...miasma because of it. My ‘soul’ or whatever you desire to call it has been slowly degrading. I was lucky to be able to last four decades, but it’s largely because of cooperative gestures I made with some more technologically minded Blades very early on. But I’ve decided to go to Pyra and Mythra, ask them to take me to a place without ether. I’ve done everything I can, but I want this life to end. The rest, I leave in your hands.** ]

With this, the scrambled together message ended which gave Tetsuya enough of a picture of what this other self experienced in his timeline: The Rihabiri failed to recognize the grasp of the Ganglion’s slavery practices and saw the Valkenians, Qlurians, Illarians, and perhaps even the other Ma-non as willing combatants for the organization and thus killed them all, cementing a poor reputation for humanity and ended up lacking the means to acquire information about their enemy, and even speculated that Sumit’s group of Ma-non weren’t even able to communicate with the humans for a time since he himself was unable to without the transmitters given to him by the very race, which was incorporated into his third gen mimeosome body.

“So that alternate self suffered greatly because he lacked context and knowledge I know, because of him. Mythra isn’t our enemy from the get-go and he apparently set-up countermeasures to ensure the Valkenians, Qlurians, Ma-non, and Illarians were preparing in the shadows for the Rihabiri’s arrival. This other me unfortunately made humanity alienate themselves to Mythra who then refused to work with them, causing two distant enemies to fight against an overwhelming foe individually and failing in the process since the Ganglion had far superior numbers and equipment, and apparently for the Rihabiri’s forces, much of their leadership was displaced. Well, thankfully things are going far smoother this time around. I just need to worry about securing this continent, freeing the Valkenians and finding that weapon mentioned in the logs. If the Ganglion complete and deploy it, that seems to be when doomsday begins if it’s to be trusted. Find it and capture it or destroy it. Heh, the old me is rather bold.”

* * *

 

His thoughts were soon interrupted when he heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind him, the sight of Mythra standing at the edge of the tower

“ **I take it you’ve listened to the entirety of the message you made in the past Tetsuya Yuasa?** ”

Tetsuya scratched his head as he shifted his gaze toward his communicator before extending it out to her, whom accepts it for a moment as she presses a few buttons on the edge before placing it over Tetsuya’s arm as it wirelessly connects to his mimeosome’s network systems and magnetically connects itself to keep it stable

“This didn’t exactly come to my mind straight away because of how long it’s been and from the chaos of both that one battle and the war we’ve been fighting off the Ganglion for the past two hundred years, but you should be able to talk with me now. Say something.”

“Have your people really been fighting that long? It’s...baffling to imagine. Wars back on my world were only growing shorter in time, two centuries is almost unthinkable.”

Once Tetsuya finished speaking, Mythra simply gave a gentle smile at his words as she put a hand on her waist “Heh, it really is good to hear that voice of yours.”

“Mythra look, I hope you know that I’m not the Tetsuya you knew in the past.”

“I’m not an idiot. Of course I know that, but you’re still the person I knew, albeit lacking certain experiences and knowledge. But I digress. But to answer your question, yeah. We’ve been fighting the Ganglion for two hundred years. Me, Pyra, Nia, and Dagas the four of us are Aegises, Dagas being the newest of us; we’ve been leading our own different outfits meant to coordinate our war efforts. At the start of the war, I was in control over Mor Ardain, Nia: Uraya, Dagas controls Gormott, and Pyra is in charge of Tantal. But as the war waged on over the course of decades, we lost Mor Ardain, Uraya, Indol, and surprisingly Temperantia which composed much of this world. I have no idea why they want that remote wasteland, but they have a garrison there. We are continuously losing ground to their mechanized giants and even our last two remaining holdouts: Gormott and Tantal are at risk since they’ve established outposts and solidified their supply chains.”

Hearing how the Blades had been losing ground and the war outright, yet at a remarkably slow pace, especially when considered that the Ganglion is an interstellar crime syndicate with multiple systems, is equal parts horrible and impressive. Horrible that an intelligent species is on the verge of extinction, but impressive that they lasted two centuries since the Blades don’t seem to have any sort of space-age technology. But the mention of the Ganglion maintaining a garrison in a wasteland just screams research labs or something that requires secrecy.

‘ _Hmm, I wonder what the consequences would be if we tried to level the playing field a little. Introduce Skell designs to the Blades? I’ve heard that Blade victory against Ganglion skells has been pyrrhic at best, but if we could change that-_ ’ “Erm, do you think we could reschedule this conversation Mythra? It is important that we discuss these things, but my team is exhausted and needs to recuperate.” After seeing Mythra grimly nod in acknowledgement as Tetsuya began to walk away, stopping in his tracks as a prior conversation suddenly resurfaced “By the way Mythra, one of my contacts among the Valkenians, the ‘beasts’ you know them as, told me that you were responsible for killing his daughter, wife, and a small hunting party they were part of.”

“When...when was this exactly? Did he say? Realize that I’ve fighting nearly daily. Recalling any individual battle needs more context.”

“Within the last month. They were sent to Tantal with some Blades.”

Mythra paused as she cupped her chin in her hand “I see. No wonder he wanted to fight me so fiercely. I’ll try to talk to him tomorrow and see if we can establish some sort of middle ground. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to easily forgive and forget what that bastard’s people has done to us. We lost Indol because of their relentlessness. Don’t think that just because Blades can be summoned at will, we’re devoid of pain and feelings. I’ve had many friends get killed by the Ganglion, and the Valkenians by extension.”

“I’m not the sort to expect miracles Mythra. Let’s do this one day at a time. Just don’t antagonize them, we need to unite if we’re to defeat the Ganglion But there’s one thing I want you to help me with if possible. Poppi. I want her repaired if possible.”

“Sure. She’s a close friend to me. I want to help her after she went so far as to protect you.”

“By the way, I’ve always been curious, why are you so committed about our world? The you I met in the past never disclosed this information.”

“Erm, Mythra…” Tetsuya deeply sighed a despondent sigh as he attempted to focus his mind on the present moment “Look, humanity is in _very_ dire straits. Our world was destroyed because of the Ganglion’s involvement. There is only twenty million people onboard our ark, and we only know of one other ark that survived, so the day we lost Earth, we lost 9.96 billion people as far as we are aware. The people onboard our ark Mythra, we’ve been trapped in our ship for the last five years and we are aching for a home. A world we can colonize and free ourselves from the shackles of these mimeosomes, and more importantly: gradually reawaken our sleeping crew. Mythra, I am more than aware that this is your world by right since you are the natives, but is there anything I can do to have you consider letting us share your world?”

“I understand your plight. Perhaps we can come to a compromise as we fight. For the time being, I need to gauge your intent. We’ve spent two centuries fighting off alien lifeforms. It’s made me wary to trust others.”

“Of course. If you will. Oh, and one last thing Mythra. Could you keep these things secret from the people here? It’s not that I distrust anyone here, but...I don’t think they’re ready for something like this. Not going to lie, for as calm as I look, this message has utterly rocked what I deem conventional.”

“Sure, I understand you wanting to keep this under wraps. Just say that your translators finally managed to understand our vocal chords enough to fluidly talk to us.

* * *

 

Following his lead, the pair enter the tower to find Arisa and Sumit next to a computer on the second floor, Poppi being connected to it, with the other Ma-non, Blades, Tirkin, and Totori scattered about the interior, all parties talking to each other to some extent, though the Blades, aside from Crossette, Gorg, Floren, Ursula, and Kasandra who actually found themselves given odd glances by their fellow Blades, and Tirkin found talking with Totori and the Ma-non difficult either because of past/unknown affiliations or their outright inability to converse with one another, climbing the nearby stairs after Tetsuya disconnected Ryoma’s arm and attached it to replace his damaged appendage.

“Arisa, are we going to be able to repair Poppi?” Tetsuya chose to ignore the backlash that had happened earlier and got right to the point as he saw the inert robotic Blade leaning against the computer.

“Not with the lack of tech we have here. And that’s not even getting into how I have no idea what her internal circuitry is like when it comes to schematics though we could do a full scan if we can get her to the ark. We need the Rihabiri’s technicians to fabricate the parts. But. There is something I think could work.”

“I take it that it won’t be a convenient solution based on your tone?”

“Pretty much. If we wait too long, we run the risk of having Poppi’s memory banks being corrupted. But we might be able to convert her to Madoka’s mimeosome since it’s the last fully intact inert mimeosome left. If I may be candid, I see nothing wrong with this. I mean, sure, I don’t like the idea of my friend’s body being used by a strange machine we’ve only known a day, but she’s a treasure trove of knowledge and one extra body to help us out around here.”

“She’s not just a source of information to pry Arisa, remember that she is a person at the end of the day, and I do owe her a fairly sizeable debt. If it weren’t for her intercepting that strike, it could’ve been the end of me.” Tetsuya took a moment and turned toward Mythra “Are you okay with us moving Poppi’s consciousness to one of our mimeosome bodies for the time being until we can send her body to our ark for repairs?”

“I’m not sure. Poppi’s being was specifically meant for her current body. But would you be able to partition her three forms?”

“Maybe. I’m not entirely sure with this foreign tech but I’m sure Sumit could figure something out since the Ma-non are rather tech-savvy.”

“Wait, you can understand the Blades now?”

“Yeah, it took a while for my translator to take effect, but I can freely speak with the Blades now. I guess that the Ma-non and Valkenians’ biology are more similar to our own, or perhaps the Blade’s seemingly energy-like physiology is so foreign that it took an extra day?”

“Hold up. Something about this doesn’t add up. I’m relatively informed about our tech but I’ve never heard of translators _that_ advanced.” As soon as he had finished talking about this, he was soon met with Arisa staring him down, her expression clearly telling she was quick to suspect about the circumstances Tetsuya is keeping discreet, making him have to think of something to cover his tracks.

“Arisa, the third generation mimeosome project has many classified features that I simply don’t have clearance to disclose. Me, Kale’s Wolf squadron, Akira, Hachiro, we were all chosen to field-test these prototypes ahead of everyone else. Honestly, I shouldn’t have synchronized the translation systems I have with your mimeosomes to begin with because of the NDA clauses the engineers insisted on, but the situation we’re in necessitated this.”

Hearing Tetsuya give this response, Arisa couldn’t help but feel like he skirted the question, but chose to ignore it at this time since she was still too angry at him “Fine. Just tell that alien bastard to back off so I can work. I want him nowhere near me. Hell, not even on this floor!”

“But why Arisa Ando? Are we not friends yes?”

“Hell no! I will never be friends with an alien like you! It’s because of freaks like you that we lost Earth and many people we hold dear! I lost my family and my fiancé that day five years ago. I _will never_ forget the pain you caused me. The day I set my hatred aside is the day all alien life is extinguished.” Tetsuya could tell right away that it took everything Arisa had to avoid outright lashing out in physical violence as her voice was raising in ferocity.

“Arisa, that is quite enough. But, I can tell you need time to think things through. Do what you need to do to connect Poppi to Madoka’s mimeosome. Sumit, can you take me to the hydroponic bays? I’d like to know if there’s anything there we could actually eat.”

* * *

 

With plans being established and with the fact that Tetsuya, Totori, and Arisa were all forced to drink from the impure bio-circulatory plasma because of their various injuries meant that their conscious minds are living on numbered days from the impurities, but thankfully, Tetsuya’s third generation mimeosome meant that he could go an extra day longer without drinking it, allowing some degree of conservation from the limited supplies they possess. Among the various factions residing within the confines of Fonsett: the remaining soldiers of Suzume: Tetsuya, Totori, and Arisa, the Ma-non, the Valkenians, the Blades, and the Tirkin spent the next ten days gathering information about their surroundings, namely about Ganglion installations or focus points on the continent of Leftheria and spent valuable time cross-referencing their sources of information to establish a bigger picture for all involved parties, whom was joined by the reawakened Poppi six days later as Arisa was surprisingly able to partition the three personalities and establish a means of identifying them by having Madoka’s eyes turn blue, gold, or red for Alpha, Quixotic Tutelar, and Quantum Technochampion respectively since Poppi is using Madoka’s, which has admittedly made the trio a little uneasy associating Poppi’s being with Madoka’s voice, when the sight of six shuttles and a hundred and fifty Skells, all being of Amdusias class, but having been upgraded to generation two with the emergence of new armor designs making it both stronger and lighter, emerged in the sky over Fonsett the day Akihiko had specified. The sight of the Skells frightened the Blades though Tetsuya had calmed them down as they descended to the ground alongside their shuttle entourage

“Tetsuya-kun, something tells me that the emperor has sent us some major hardware. If they were only sending parts, they would’ve only sent in one single shuttle, not six.”

“I share your sentiments Totori. Surely our situation hasn’t reached the state where we’d need such a large deployment _this_ soon. I knew Kyuichi-san was sending us Wolf Squadron to get them out of his hair, but something about this worries me.”

Minutes later, the Skells touched down to the ground arounding the plateau’s exterior and the shuttles hovering above the village’s airspace, scattering themselves around the region, but what caught Tetsuya off-guard throughout it all was the sight of Akihiko Kyuichi climbing down one of the shuttle’s reinforced cables, the sight surprising them all, quickly followed by twenty soldiers grappling down, each landing in different spots as they lunged from the cables near the end.

“K-Kyuichi-san, why are you here?!” Tetsuya was beyond shocked to see the emperor’s assistant so far away from his post like this, especially when he was expecting only Wolf Squadron and a single shuttle of supplies.

“Yuasa-san, I would prefer to keep that information more...privately. If you will?”

“Er, sure. Totori, Arisa, go get some new plasma and parts. You guys really need it more than I do at the present moment. I’ll submit myself when I finish here.”

Although he is feeling confused at the circumstances at hand, he followed Akihiko to the edge of the village away from the shuttles and any other people on the plateau

“Tetsuya Yuasa-san, I’m not going to mince words. Our military leadership has collapsed and our likelihood of securing this planet has decreased drastically. To counter this, the emperor has ordered that we initiate phase 3 of colonization efforts of this site immediately. Expect regular convoys of supplies and soldiers until you can begin establish planet-side supply chains.”

This revelation simply served to confuse Tetsuya “Phase 3? But that’s deployment of military might. We’re supposed to start with a recon team and proceed with construction after the disclosement of site coordinates with some security detail, not full-blown military armaments. Did-Did something happen?”

“Yes. According to Lifehold Control, the other two teams: Asahi and Yumiya have been killed in action save for Kozu-san and Nakagawa-san, alongside much of your Suzume team. This is our _one_ foothold on the planet and we are _not_ going to lose it. With this in mind, you have been issued new orders: Secure the immediate surroundings and then begin launching expeditionary operations to locate our missing leaders. Remember that they possess significant information that could endanger the Rihabiri. If they have been captured by enemy forces, rescue them if at all possible, eliminate them if you cannot. To assist you in this mission, we’ve awakened one of our top commando units from within the Lifehold Core and outfitted them with generation three mimeosomes much like yours.”

Tetsuya went wide-eyed after hearing of the fact that Akira and Hachiro were seemingly captured and how both teams were killed in action since each of them had thirty members in addition to how things have really gone downhill in the last ten days while he and the others were bunkering down on the plateau, but grew curious with the mention of a commando unit being reawakened

“Which commando unit did you-” As Tetsuya spoke, he was soon interrupted with the sight of pink hair and the sudden added weight to his body as his body was being forcibly twisted multiple times with the sound of amused laughter following suite, as if a child had suddenly grabbed their parent, asking for helicopter rides “W-What the hell?!” Despite his body being burdened by the sudden weight, he was able to force the newcomer off, seeing a young woman, approximately at 4’9, with short pink hair and bronze eyes wearing Exodus armor much like his own, quickly turning toward Akihiko with an angry glare “Kyuichi, did you _seriously bring a child_ down here to the planet? This planet is nowhere safe enough for civilians right now!”

“Tetsuya Yuasa-san, this ‘child’ is the team lead of the commando unit we reawakened: Silver Pleiades.”

Hearing that one name made Tetsuya double-take in surprise, blinking rapidly as he shifted gazes between Akihiko and the newcomer “Silver...Silver...Pleiades? But that’s-”

Chuckling at his bewildered state, the newcomer leaned forward with her arms behind her back “What, no hug for your cousin? It’s been five years Tsuya-kun.”

Hearing the girl speak made Tetsuya’s eyes begin to well up as he stepped forward and take her into his arms “R-Reina-chan…”

Following his lead, Reina wrapped her arms around his back with a gentle smile “Yep, it’s been five years, but I’m back in your life. Kyuichi-san filled me in on the details when he woke me and the girls up. Oh, and while I’m fine with you calling me by name, remember that among us Pleiades, I’m Maia.”

“Filled me in too Tets.” From the direction of the village, a man with rather vibrant green hair and eyes calmly approached the scene as he gave a light-hearted salute with his index and middle finger. After noticing the color schemes of their hair, Tetsuya’s white, Reina’s pink, and Kale’s green, it made him remember their first training expedition on Mount Caubvick in Newfoundland with a division of the Skelleton Crew as a forefront for arctic combat training. It was about a week after the recruitment of the third wave of soldiers, which included Reina and Kale, the latter was subtly dismissed from the US Army Rangers at the time since Kale had begun developing some military maverick tendencies but his capabilities and commendations, in addition to how many soldiers had been seeing him as an inspirational model, prior made dismissing him an unfavorable decision. But his superiors saw a prime opportunity to be rid of him when Elma visited Fort Benning and decided to have Kale transferred to Exodus, disguising it as a promotion. But with the differing environs of Exodus versus conventional militaries, particularly how Elma valued results and was willing to accept people from all walks of life as long as they could contribute, Kale thrived under the new atmosphere and formed a particularly fierce band he called Wolf.

“ _Oh great_ , I heard that Kyuichi-san was sending you Kale, but I prayed it was a joke, but it looks like I was wrong. Figures I get stuck with a bastard like you.”

“Haha, nope. You’re stuck with me, bastard and all. Best get used to it cause I ain’t leaving any time soon.”

“Heh, you two act the same as you did back in training. It’s nostalgic since it’s been nearly two decades since then; our training sessions were back in 2043 and it’s 2059 now, though it’s fair to call it fifteen since we’re in these ageless mimeosome bodies.”

“Ahem.” Akihiko coughed into his enclosed hand to gather their attention as the trio turned to face him “Anyway, yes. The situation has demanded that we re-evaluate certain elements and begin reawakening squad leaders with the loss of Kozu Hachiro and Nakagawa Akira. Warrant Officer Yanagawa and Captain Larson, with my authority as the Emperor’s proxy in the field, I grant you both the position of acting Lieutenant General, subordinate to General Yuasa’s command. You both have declined promotion multiple times while exceeding many of our expectations. You've both more than earned this level of promotion. Yuasa-san, I’m going to return to the Rihabiri, but I expect update reports every two weeks, a month at the latest. Anything you deem necessary for the mission’s continued success will be sanctioned, provided it does not threaten our ark’s safety. Even working with these xeno lifeforms I’ve seen littered about the area.”

“Thank you for this honor Kyuichi-san.” As carefree as the pair typically are, both solemnly bowed in appreciation at the gesture as they then turned to face Tetsuya as Akihiko walked away from the area “What’s our plan of action, Tsuya-kun?”

“Before we do anything Kale, Reina-chan, there is something I need to share with you both. Well, two actually. First, let me synchronize the new translator I have with your mimeosomes.“ After finishing the task at hand, wanting to ensure the newly arrived troops can understand their new allies “Now...for the second thing. Can both of you keep this information confidential?”

“Er, sure?” Kale and Reina blinked in confusion at this remark as Tetsuya replayed the message that was on the communicator for his fellow generals since he has a remarkable level of trust in their discretion, the revelation he had learned of utterly shocking them to the core.

“Holy shit. Tets, surely you know how insane this is, right?”

“Admittedly, yes. But with what I’ve seen of the situation at hand, I believe it is true. Too much of what I’ve seen doesn’t work without this theoretical status.”

“The Sign of the Four. Chapter 1 page 92, Eliminate all other factors and the one which remains must be the truth.” Reina paused as she saw Kale staring in bewilderment “What, Asterope’s aunt was an english literature professor at Lancaster University back in the UK.” Reina sighed in mild disappointment following this remark “How is it that the japanese is more aware of english than someone actually part of that culture?”

“Hey, there’s UK English and American English. I’m firmly on the latter and that fancy smancy literature bores me. I prefer reading something practical like guides or manuals. Anyway, our path is clear. Well general, you can count on my Wolf squadron when the time comes.”

“Thanks Kale. Maia?”

“You’re crazy to think if I’d turn tail and run and hide. I’m not like that wimp Hachiro-san, or heck, even Akira-san. Tell me to jump, I ask, how high.” Reina smirked proudly as she drew her longsword and held it to the sky, followed by Kale doing the same with his photon saber and lastly Tetsuya taking one of his own swords as all three connect their blades as a sign of loyalty among the trio.

* * *

 

Whereas Tetsuya’s Suzume team was dispatched to Leftheria, to the northeast of the Leftherian continent, on the island nation of Indol, Akira Nakagawa’s team: Asahi had their shuttle touch down at the edge of the continent and begin their reconnaissance efforts with far great efficiency and stability as their shuttle and supplies were kept intact, but things quickly began to fall apart upon discovery of they had declared the local indigenous lifeforms, as one of the soldiers under Akira’s command had trouble rousing himself from his slumber when he sensed movement nearby, followed by his body being moved, finally being reawakened some time later, his body feeling heavy and his ability to move being hampered. As soon as he was able to, he attempted to look about the small metal room, seeing Akira quickly enter with his rifle drawn, panting as if exhausted from a run

“C-Commander. Thank goodness. W-Where’s the rest of the squad?!”

“Sorry corporal, everyone else is dead. I only just got here.”

“No…” Sorrow racked in his voice, the soldier was despondent but attempted to recover his morale “Commander, if you can hurry and get me out of this, we can try to escape this place!”

“Yeah, erm. About that-” Akira paused as his expression turned rather ominous, grinning evilly as he rose his rifle toward the soldier in question “‘Fraid I can’t do that pal. Because I was the one who killed them all for my new master.” As soon as Akira finished this, the soldier became utterly flabbergasted with shock at Akira’s remark, desperately fighting against his shackles to escape the increasingly dangerous situation.

“W-W-WHAT?!?! W-Why?! Why would you kill everyone in our squad?!”

“Like I told you corporal. My new master, Grandmaster Faarax of the Ganglion, gave me conditions for me regarding joining the organization. One of those conditions is that I kill my team and prove that my loyalty toward humanity is null and void. All I have to do now is kill you and I’ll have proven myself.”

“R-Rihabiri Command! This is Seiichi Hitoshi-”

“Don’t even try, we’ve jammed all communications in this facility. You can’t contact anyone. Farewell Hitoshi. If those idiotic engineers on the ark reawaken you and the others, you won’t even know what happened over the last five years.”

“Commander, why are you doing this?!”

This question actually had Akira somewhat lower his gun as he faced the soldier with fierce hostility “Quite simple. Exodus lied to all of us, lied to us about the backgrounds of the mimeosomes and its connection to our human bodies being abandoned on Earth. This rage has been festering and the Ganglion is a means to an end for this.” Feeling frustrated with the conversation dragging on longer than he likes, Akira rose his gun and shot Seiichi in the head, severing his connection to his mimeosome in one fell swoop.

“You really are sadistic, Akira, making that man feel any sort of hope before killing him. I killed my team in their sleep when the Ganglion found me.” Akira turned to see Hachiro leaning against the door as soon as he had killed Seiichi, the response actually startling Akira but was able to calm himself down enough to recognize Hachiro's presence.

“Haha, you got me there. Yeah, I’ve had a lot of anger building up for years now and this has been such an exhilarating release.”

“Well, it’s time we meet with Grandmaster Faarax, get new orders and all that.”

“Sure. We’ve proven our loyalty to the Ganglion. Can’t let ourselves get complacent, but I can’t help but feel like we’re forgetting...something. Something...important.”

“If you can’t remember, then clearly it’s not as important as you think it is. Let’s not focus on such irrelevances. We are Ganglion soldiers now, remember that.” Despite Akira’s attempts to downplay the matter with a fairly jovial remark, Hachiro knew from the get-go he was talking about Tetsuya’s team over in Leftheria.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song I am using in this chapter, which is being played throughout Tetsuya’s recording, is of Amalee’s cover of aLIEz, the ending of ALDNOAH.ZERO. Needless to say, check out that video on youtube, reading off the lyrics alone do them little justice. And let me just say...the song is so freaking amazing and these lyrics do a remarkable job of conveying certain elements of this ‘failed’ timeline that the other Tetsuya experienced. In this timeline, humanity landed on Alrest a few months late, and it was these few precious months that cemented the inevitable defeat of both the Rihabiri forces and the Blade resistance. I won’t spoil it here, but if you’re interested in me writing a chapter about this, let me know in the comments. I'm interested in doing those kind of side chapters but I want your feedback on whether to incorporate them into the story proper or would you want a separate entry dedicated for it?


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